The Other A.D.D. - Agnostic Decision Disorder

Engaging The "Any One Will Do" Consumer

By David Miranda

There is a popular buzz word found in most marketing presentation today - engagement, as in, "we need to engage consumers". It is a worthy objective, indeed, but one needs to understand the state of the marketplace today to put this into some perspective.

Consumers, today, suffer from two A.D.D. maladies - "attention deficit disorder" and "agnostic decision disorder" - the latter being the most troublesome to marketers since it implies that in many cases they are indifferent to brands that cannot differentiate.

Marketing, therefore, has two parallel objectives - getting a consumer's attention and giving them a reason to actually buy your product or service over those offered by your competitors. To do this a marketer must have a compelling "story" - a "brief" compelling story to communicate.

In marketing, everything communicates, but more often than not, marketers "bore the hell out of" consumers. Imagine Starbucks communicating to consumers "we sell coffee" or Apple communicating "we sell hardware and software" or Prada communicating "we sell clothes and accessories". Yet everyday marketers communicate boring stories and expect consumers to pay attention, get excited, and buy. Not going to happen.

Give consumers a reason to pay attention - a reason to buy and do it relentlessly by giving them more reasons to buy your product or services. Just like personal relationships, you have to relentlessly work at it.

Agnosticism is the enemy of a successful brand. Differentiate of die.