It was Volkswagen that broke through the clutter of Detroit's "big" thinkers in the golden days of the 60's and 70's. Volkswagen had an understanding of the big shifts about to take place in the customer landscape and they were not afraid to make a radical departure from the norm. Now as marketer's are moving forward in this new world, this new normal, we too need to "think small". That is our challenge - not to think big, not to over think, and not to think that even with big issues in front of us, the response needs to be big.
Our greatest challenge is resistance. How do you breakthrough resistance? Resistance in the marketplace, resistance in your organization. It isn't by thinking big. Big thinking is scary to most people and only gets them to dig into their trenches more deeply.
Thinking and doing the small things can make real change happen for our businesses. We live in a 24/7 hyper-linked, hyper-active world -- where everything is presented to us as BIG. And that "bigness", that constant negative barrage, has created a new customer landscape. A customer landscape that is:
- Getting back in touch with things of real value and giving up the idea that these things can be bought.
- Accepting the new economy as an opportunity to build a more authentic happiness.
- Using new-economy attitude and tools to get collective benefits.
- Embracing the power of the collective to get individual benefit.
These are big shifts that are happening in the customer landscape. Take small steps to meet these needs and you will be a big winner.