There’s a very specific behavior that has puzzled me for years. You can see it for yourself in the video above.
When a plane comes to a complete stop at the terminal, a tone signals that it’s safe for passengers to remove their seat belts.
For many, it also means “stand up quickly and start unloading luggage from the overhead bins amidst dozens of fellow passengers who are doing the same thing at the same time in the same very confined space, and then stand there for 10 minutes not moving.”
But I’ve never seen any of those passengers who jump to their feet make a move for the door in order to be first off the plane. They seem to respect the unwritten rule of “no cuts.”
So, why stand up right away?
Do people stand because everyone else is standing? Do they not want to “miss out” on establishing their place in line? Do they really think that what they’re doing will move them forward any faster?
Now apply those same questions to your marketing efforts.
Are you doing what everyone else is doing just because everyone else is doing it? Investing time, for instance, in all the social media channels? Talking about the things you “have” to talk about in the way you “have” to talk about them?
Is there any value in what you’re doing, marketing-wise? Or are many of your efforts akin to standing around in a crowd, not moving forward?
Do you have a Pavlovian response to whatever “tone” it is that signals you to react? (“It’s December, so it must be time for our winter promotion because that’s what we do in December.”)
If you could ask every one of those people in the video why they stood up at the tone, what reason do you think they’d give?
And if you asked every member of your team to explain the reasons your company markets the way it does, would their responses leave you wondering why?
