stealing ideas

Have You Earned the Right to be Heard?

Seth Godin - who at times can be long on inspiration short on application – has a short and stark reminder to media professionals today on his blog, “The tragic mistake of demographics and media planning is that they overlook the single most important issue: is the person you’re talking to ready to listen?”

Which is good reminder and at the same time, it isn’t. 

 
Good…

…if you have a response-based objective.  When you’re trying to get VC backing, or in terms of digital media objectives, get registrants, coupons downloaded, quotes requested, a car priced, etc.  This should be the aim of all of your partners, placements, ad types, and creative strategy – is it all working together to effectively and efficiently reach the people that are ready to listen?

Isn’t…

…because it assumes that people are ready, or will one day be ready, to listen.  But in most instances, they’re not.  And if you’re soliciting someone who’s not ready to listen then you may as well tell them their mother’s ugly, their wife’s a whore, and their child’s a brat.

The reality is only a handful of people are ready to listen at any given moment, a few more people will one day listen, and most will never be ready to listen.

The job of the media professional, the publisher (who should intimately know their audience and know who’s ready, who’s not, and how to engage the two), and the brand marketer is to distinctly and simultaneously speak to those that are ready to listen and earn the right to be heard from those that are not.

• The role of the media professional is to develop a communication architecture that reaches both groups of people while maintaining an authentic and singular brand voice.
• The role of the publisher is to intimately know their audience and know who’s ready to listen, who’s not, and how to best leverage their influence to engage the two on behalf of the brand.
• The role of the brand marketer is to demand that both communication efforts being going on and ongoing.

So I’m going to add to Seth’s declaration the result of which is this:

The tragic mistake of demographics and media planning is that they assume the person you’re talking to is ready to listen while ignoring their obligation to earn the right to be heard.

If you’re not earning the right to be heard – no one will ever be ready to listen.