If habits are what we repeatedly do then, habits are what define a customer profile.

However, habits aren’t talked about much in term of creating a profile for your customer – these layers are neglected.

If we can define a picture of the customer as a moving one – rather then a static one – we can better understand how to leverage the persons habits to create change for them.

Rather then trying to force a change on a still image of them.

What people forget when they are doing the act is marketing – is that people have become before them.

That other ads of come in front of the customer, from different competitors and from other industries.

That they talk to their friends and have had promises not been kept by other advertisers.

When writing an ad you have to think about: “What have they seen before?”

This changes how you write. You no longer selfishly come out with your ad because you think it’s better but instead start with customer and the fact that they have seen the same claims before.

Your ad presence may make the same claim but it must in someway show to the customer that this time it is different.

Or else they will feel that it’s just the same old promise from before.

A brand in a lot of ways is a group of associations.

That’s why it’s important to get your associations clear. Because people don’t know how to store completely new things in their mind, so these use shorthand. They ask themselves: “what does this remind me of?” What does this feel like”?, it’s through this basis that they start to relate to your brand to fulfill a promise they are seeking to solve.

Now if your brand shows up with different hats each day, these associations will start to get messy.

Maybe one day you wear blue. One day you wear red. One day you serve this audience. The next day you serve the opposite.

Its through these conflicts that friction is created in the mind of the customer.

All associations must be clear.

Advertisers are taught to steal attention because more attention means more money.

It means that once I take it, I can use it to my own advantage, leaving the person being advertised to as the true victim.

What if advertisers were taught to protect attention instead?

Instead of countless “funnel hacking” methods and “5×6” ad formulas – what if they where taught how to create ads that were meaning to the end customer?

Something that was real, raw and actually helped them improve their life. Protecting attention over stealing attention.

It’s simple and it’s hard. And if we are being really honest, in the short term you probably wont make that much money but who do you want to be known for as?

You may have dragged yourself across broken glass to get your customers service executed to them.

You may have gone through the flames to get the product to them just in time.

The thing is that customers don’t care if you have gone through the flames or through broken glass.

All they care about the end result that you give them, unless you can use your pain as part of the story that they buy.

Meaning that if you can use your journey as a way to connect with them and to be authentic – then and only then can it have the opportunity to connect with the end value result of your product or service.

The more you reinforce something to people the more it becomes real to them.

People may at first ignore it. They may resist it. They may laugh at the idea or push it away.

But if the idea has some “timelessness” to it, it will slowly develop in their mind.

Frequency can be one mode of creating change.

What feels good in marketing and what actually works? 

Having people talk about it. Having people engage with it may all feel good but there is typically a difference between what feels like works and what actually works.

We forget that marketing is about the customer even though we preach it all the time.

We instead talk about storytelling.

We instead talk about brand identity.

We instead talk about viral, influence and performance marketing.

But we always fail to talk about marketing in the terms of what an ordinary person on the street would care about.

The mind can only hold a certain number a things. After a while the rest has to be forced in.

And in most cases, “the rest” blocked out or not heard.

Because once that simple core idea is set, the frame, the rest is built around it.

Remember, simple ideas over complex ones.

When we talk about the colors or symbols of a brand, sometimes it can feel like the conversation can get rather elementary.

Should this be blue or red? Should this symbol be this shape or this shape? Where should we place the logo? How should it look?

In a lot of ways, all of this seems rather pointless but when you realize you are dealing with associations not design – it’s easier to think about it – and the tremendous importance of it.

It’s hard for people to remember complex things or concepts by themselves. When we think of one thing, we think of the next thing. It’s like a web. When I say chair, you may think dinner. You then may think house. Then you may think community. Or you maybe you didn’t think of any of those things and simply thought of an experience you had or a chair you have.

The point is no thought lives in isolation, it’s connected to other thoughts.

So it may seem insignificant changing the colors or deciding where the logo should go but it’s one of the most important decisions you can make.

Because once you decide, it determines how people will think about your brand, what it will remind them of and what it will be associated with for the years to come.