Bushfires are raging, again, around NSW, houses lost, businesses destroyed, kids stressing out because they cannot get to HSC locations, and “fireies” putting themselves in harms way.
Yet, we watch, are concerned, but go about our dailies as best we can.
Last weekend my sons car was one of those caught in the fire at Olympic park, another of the many started by some idiot $???%%$# throwing a cigarette.
Whilst it was just a car, well insured, and with few personal things in it, the impact on our emotions as we waited to find out if his was one of the 43 destroyed was significant, because it was close to us, happened to us, and not somebody we did not know.
It is the same in all aspects of our lives, the closer we get, the more we feel it, whatever “it” is.
Herein lies the fundamental truth about marketing.
Understanding what is happening in a consumers mind, how they are responding to some stimulus, how their emotions are playing out, in response to the stimulus you are delivering, is the key to engaging with them.
My Dad always repeated the advice of Niccolo Machiavelli, to hold your friends close, but your enemies closer, but it seems to me that adding your customers to that list of bosom buddies is also crucial.
Commiserations to your friend Len, but they are just a strangers words in the face of what is a personal catastrophe for him.
A man complained he had no shoes until he met a man who had no feet. Your words are resonant Allen. When one thinks of “losing” a home, a thought must be reserved for people literally losing their homes like my friend and colleague who has lost his home overnight in Winmalee.