The thing with walking in someone’s shoes is that : you can’t.

The shoe won’t fit and if it does it will probably feel weird. Also, where do you go once you are in their shoes? There has to be a better way.

The better way is to act as if. It not only wear the shoes but know where they have been, where they are going and why.

You may one day find yourself in the chasm, looking down the dark abyss.

A place where you feel like you have no ideas.

A place where you feel uncertainty.

A place where you feel scared.

A place where you don’t feel like you are going to make it.

A place where you feel like you are just running in circles.

These are the moments that will define you as an advertising and marketing person. Keep going.

We need to know the difference between what feels good in the moment and what actually works. That starts with empathy. It starts with the deep understanding of what the person is going through, what they are thinking and what they believe, then playing that important character in their life that shows them a better way.

How we feel is irrelevant. It’s how we make them feel. Not feeling for the sake of feeling but feeling for the sake of change.

It’s so easy to fall into it. It’s so easy because it’s always around you. If you try to run away from it, it follows you with the same speed. You can’t sleep it off – it wakes up with you. Even if you try to meditate, it’s still right there with you. It’s in fact the only way you can see the world around you.

It’s yourself. It’s your ego. It’s the story in your head that’s been forming since you were born. It’s held up by half right assumptions and faulty conclusions but it makes up who you are and how you think and that is the very thing that will always get in the way of professional marketing. The amateur marketer makes something for themselves then gives it to the world. The professional, makes something through a process of empathy. That’s what sonder is: the process of empathy.

You don’t create an idea – you discover it.You see, ideas can’t be created out of thin air, they are something you discover through constant searching. Through constant study. 

Creating implies that you make it. You don’t make an idea, you find it. You find it after days of feeling like you don’t have the answer. You find it by reading another book about the topic or going for a long drive studying the competition. 

The big idea is always out there in the world. You just have to be willing to keep on the journey and find it. 

As Bill Bernbach once said: “Principles endure, formulas don’t.”

In marketing and advertising we always have to realign ourselves with the principles at hand.

Knowledge is not enough. It is not the end, it is only the beginning.

The way you take something into the future is not with knowledge but with an idea.

Not just any idea but a big idea, one that hasn’t been done before. One that breaks new ground. One that changes people and the very culture.

The marketer is always on search for the idea, the idea that could change it all.

Some people want to keep reaching higher. They want to be affiliated with brands that elevate this feeling, reinforce it and allow them to reach higher.

All brands in a certain way are aspirational. Some brands and people are more then others.

What makes your brand something that would fit into the story of someone’s aspirations?

As a marketer you are always selling keys.

Keys that unlock possibilities for people.

Keys that connect people together.

Keys that elevate status.

Keys that quench desires and sooth fears.

You paint a vivid picture of what the key unlocks, lay the path of how to obtain the key and as a result create change in their life.

Under every transaction and touch point with a customer is the underlying assumption of how all of these marketing pieces fit together.

– What are the assumptions of who the customer is?

– What are the assumptions of what the customer needs and desires?

– What are the assumptions of what the customer tells themselves a story about?

– What are the assumptions of how the customer thinks they fit in socially using this product or service?

– How does the customer really feel when they use it and what do they really crave?

Marketing creates real psychological value to customers. It connects them in ways they have never been connected. It changes the story they tell themselves so that they can live a better reality. It changes the way their peers relate to them. It even changes the way your car drives or the taste of wine.

Marketing adds real value but it doesn’t do it randomly, it does through a system and the customer is in the centre of that system. Around the customer is all the leavers of creative, brand, placement, story and all other marketing assets that engage with the customer.

When you identify these assumptions and leavers clearly, you have the opportunity to create consistent marketing value to people.