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You know, sometimes when I blog, I think I’m writing to myself, then someone answers back and I remember that we’re all in the room here together, and I listen. We are usually in a crowd, as a person, as a product or as a service. It seems a crowded world around here there these days.
That means good isn’t good enough anymore. Great isn’t great enough, even best isn’t even best enough. You need to be remarkable in order to stand out and be remembered. Being remembered is a basic competitive advantage. Think about it, how did you choose that last product you purchased? I bet it was to do with memory, either yours or by someone else’s. We remember the things that are remarkable, the things that engage us in thought or in conversation. We can’t help it, it is how we are wired (Learning your way to a better memory).
The table stakes required to be remarkable keep on spiralling upwards. Yesterday a large brand, which shall remain nameless for the purposes of this post, resorted to chaining bright orange bikes to inanimate objects in Soho, London (they’ve done the same in New York). It certainly started some conversations, it was remarkable! However, you do wonder what they will have to do next to be noticed. I have to say, by the way, I didn’t see anybody listening back.
Being remarkable is a requirement in an attention economy, but the attention economy is also result of remarkable things stealing our valuable attention. If we aren’t careful, it will be a race to the bottom as more and more things compete for our attention, we compete with more and more things for other people’s attention too (hey, look here, not there, I’m talking to you!). We shout louder and louder to be heard, but people listen to less and less. What was once remarkable, sinks into the noise floor and is lost. Lots of people talking, but no-one listening. What to do?
- Be remarkable, or you’ll be missed out.
- But pay attention, and you’ll get noticed.
Bit of a Seth Godin moment. It is the evolution of marketing - you have to get louder and louder to be heard. Eventually everyone leaves the room and we get to start again. Perhaps that is what is happening now with blogs and social media? People are fleeing TV and heading for the blogosphere. but where next?