How aware are you?

If you’re looking to start your own business there is usually a moment of awareness, a spark if you will, where you realize a moment of opportunity. The opportunity might come from spotting a weakness in the companies you will be competing against; you might discover an open lane within the marketplace; you may even come up with an original product or unique take on a service that hasn’t been spotted before. Basically, you are situationally aware in a way that your competition isn’t.
While this form of situational awareness is needed when starting of it can be a cornerstone of success for entrepreneurs and leaders who apply it to their everyday life, from business to personal. When I’m working with a client on developing their advertising message and strategy I ask them to apply that same situational awareness to the experience of their potential customers in order to connect with them in a way that the competition isn’t.
I bring this topic up because of how difficult it can be for so many business leaders to truly let go and create ads/marketing pieces/a message that is geared toward the experiences of the potential consumer so that they can better relate to and connect with them. More often than not they lose their awareness and allow personal preferences to negatively influence the ideas they have for advertising. Here are a couple generic, but very real, examples that I have experienced multiple times in my career:
- Older, male automotive dealers who insisted their TV ads should show someone playing golf while a rock music bed plays underneath (this was a Toyota dealer).
- Residential real estate developers that only advertised on local TV because they still personally watch it (the focus was new home buyers under 30).
- Personal injury law firm featuring lawyers listing off their accomplishments then pointing to the screen while saying “We mean business” (too many things wrong with this one).
The list of local businesses that have fallen into a similar trap is a mile long. But each time the way out has come from invoking that same situational awareness that helped them get started in the first place. I ask them to tell me a story about a potential customer and define their life at this moment. What is their family dynamic? What are their daily challenges and distractions? Where are they living right now? What are their hopes and fears? Why aren’t they thinking about your business right now? Why are they skeptical of your business/business category? What would you say to them, one on one, to change that?
The more they can dig in and get as detailed as possible the more Experientially Aware they can become with their soon-to-be-customers. This allows them to use their strengths to better see a perceived weakness in their competitors; to better craft a message that fits inside an open lane within the marketplace; to discover an original way to connect and resonate with the real customers who will want their product or service.
Are your ads truly focused on the lives and experiences of your local customer? How well do you understand the lives of the potential consumers you’re targeting? A little Experiential Awareness is incredibly powerful and I look forward to helping you find it! Drop me note and let’s get started!
