Point of the Curve
You've met people who stayed ahead of the curve. Perhaps you live at the curve's edge yourself – always the first to try a new thing and then the first to move on. You've also met people who drag along at the tail of the curve – always falling into step too late to dance at the party, never quite getting the inside joke.
The first group we call alphas and trendsetters. The second, posers and losers. And the vast bulk in the middle – those that hide between the curve's sharp beginning and dull end, are the riders of the trend's tidal wave.
I'm talking to you about marketing.
Seven short years ago you didn't carry a cell phone in your pocket and you had probably never received an email. But now you're living in a hypersonic, word-of-mouth world and are rarely out of touch. This interconnectivity allows trends to be launched and killed with lightning speed.
America has a hunger for authenticity. I'm convinced it's the currency of tomorrow.
In human beings, authenticity requires vulnerability – a willingness to show who and what you really are, warts and all. Americans want authenticity. We crave it. We need it. We're tired of slickly packaged, predigested, shrink-wrapped sugar. Hence the rise of BLOGS and reality shows. But when we finally catch a glimpse of the real and the true, a blinding spotlight of media hype turns even the most real among us into a plastic bobblehead. But this will not be the trend of tomorrow.
At 45, face it, I'm over the hill, but I have sons 19 and 22, so I'm not completely out of touch. The younger one sent me an email following our recent graduates' reunion and since I receive only about 3 emails a year from him, I figured I better act on it. Here's his message in its entirety:
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What I found when I clicked was The Merchants of Cool, a PBS documentary in six, 9-minute installments that took me inside a generation of youth bigger than the Baby Boomers. I met Mooks and Midriffs and felt the pulse that's pumping blood through tomorrow's world. My son gave me some great advice, and now I'm passing it on to you. Click the link.
The bad news is that it's going to get harder and harder to make ads work. The good news is that advertisers are going to have to become a lot more honest. The generation that will soon control of the world is wise to all the old tricks.
Roy H. Williams
PS – Click here for a quick smile.