Strategic Action #4 for Surviving and Thriving:
Connect With the Zeitgeist (Part 2)
Discomfort in mind and body often triggers
cravings for iconic palliatives. For a child, a soiled, battered but much loved
cuddly may do the job. Around our house, such times are met with comfort food,
such as chicken soup heavily laced with fresh garlic or Cousin Ruthie's
hamburger, green bean and mashed potato casserole.
Today, many are looking for comfort food
for their spirits. They seek relief for their unsettled souls everywhere - in politics, religion and commerce. Their
need to be consoled shows up with numbing regularity in everyday conversation.
Craving for comfort is ubiquitous. It suffuses the zeitgeist - the "spirit
of the times.”
In yesterday's post I attributed Barack
Obama's meteoric rise from a seat in the Illinois state senate just over three
years ago to now having a good shot at becoming the world's most powerful
leader to his uncanny connection with the zeitgeist.
I noted that much of the electorate ironically seems less influenced by problem
solutions offered by candidates than by their leadership styles.
Politicians aren't the only ones whose
success is tied to how well they reflect the contemporary zeitgeist. People often look to brands,
unconsciously or otherwise, for comfort when they feel besieged by a barrage of
unsettling events and conditions.
I once met a corporate lawyer who would
often sought relief from stress in a Sharper Image store near his office. The
Sharper Image's offbeat products provided welcome distraction from his troubles
of the moment.
Anthropologie, the women's apparel and
home accessories store is a comfort brand. Its layout and inventory do for many
women what the Sharper Image did for the hyperstressed lawyer.
Harley-Davidson is a quintessential
comfort brand. It provides relief from discomfiture by allowing people to
indulge a rebellious urge in socially acceptable ways. As Lee Lynch of
Carmichael Lynch, Harley's ad agency of record says, "There's a little bit
of Harley in each of us. Even nuns have the urge once in a while to break a
rule. Breaking a small rule can help us feel healthy separateness from
conventions that render us invisible as individuals.
The core paradigms of traditional marketing
have undergone massive change. In fact, they have become obsolete. Throughout
the 21st century, an ethos of hucksterism was the dominant paradigm.
Its practice reduced consumers to mere numbers and selling to fulfilling
quotas. Companies claimed to be interested in consumers as human beings but everyone
knew it was a lie.
The older, more experienced and wiser mind
of the market today rejects hucksterism. It expects companies to establish empathetic
connections with consumers and to regard them with true understanding and
compassion.
The new marketing paradigm is based on
marketers as healers, not as hucksters. Customers want to be rid of confusion,
complexity and chaos in their lives. They want to be whole - to have lives marked by clarity, simplicity
and order. They want their religious leaders to show the way, their political
leaders to help make it happen and the companies whose products they buy to collaborate
with them in becoming healthy and whole in mind, body and spirit.
Next: More
examples of companies that have
connected with the zeitgeist and adopted the healing paradigm in their marketing
David --
You mean " ... throughout the 20Th
century...." ?
Posted by: Atare E. Agbamu | February 17, 2008 at 12:45 AM
I agree the marketplaceis changing faster than it has before. I forsee changes in the marketplace speeding faster than the average consumer can understand. I also see a rapid decline in the "rip-off artists" that you call hucksters. The new consumers will want some THING for their money...not just a false promise.
Posted by: troy | February 17, 2008 at 09:49 AM
Obama equals Kennedy, equals comfort food. Chico''s equals comfort wear for my colleagues (I have yet to check it out) -- and that's fairly contemporary I think -- but means you don't have to iron your clothes to look like your mother would want you to look. I may be a hillbilly from Tennessee, but I have barely heard of Anthropologie.
Posted by: Ann | February 26, 2008 at 12:18 AM