Good marketing strategy requires a clarity of thinking. And in today's connected world, it is increasingly more difficult to think that way.
Consider what William James, a renowned psychologist and philosopher had to say on the subject: "The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." Since this is such an important subject, I will devote two columns to it.
Business complexity is fed by the ever-increasing amount of information that is being piped into the business world in as many ways as Silicon Valley can invent. There's no escaping what David Shenk described in his book, Data Smog, as the "noxious muck and druck of the information age."
Currently, information processing accounts for one-half of the gross national product. A lot of it ends up on paper that someone has to read. The following statistic might threaten you, but today's business managers are expected to read one million words per week. (Can you afford the time to read this much?)
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The information age began with the first computer, which was about the size of a living room. Today, we have more powerful machines that are laptops, palm tops, finger tops--you name it. And they're all out there spitting out information that we feel isn't helping matters.
The late management guru, Peter Drucker, agrees, "Computers may have done more harm than good by making managers even more inwardly focused. Executives are so enchanted by the internal data the computer generates--and that's all it generates so far, by and large--that they have neither the mind nor the time for the outside. Yet results are only on the outside. I find more and more executives less and less well informed (about the outside world)."
In support of Drucker's observation, a study out of Australia indicates that the human mind can only process four variables at a time. Once this number is exceeded, the mind goes into "tilt," and we have to begin again. Today's modern high-technology communications tend to generate more variables than we can handle.
It's no wonder that USA Today did an article entitled "Boomer Brain Meltdown," which describes how this generation faces more frequent memory lapses.
Some believe that it's not age that is the main cause of memory loss. They argue it's a problem of information overload. Their premise is that our minds are like the memory of a computer, and our disks are full.
Consider the numbers. In years gone by, all you needed to remember were your telephone number and address. Today, you need to keep track of burglar alarm codes, a social security number, e-mail addresses, fax numbers, calling card numbers and PINs for ATMs. The digits are crowding out the words.
Some people even believe that information overload will become a medical problem. Len Riggio, CEO of Barnes & Noble, predicts that in the 21st century, people will be popping pills to help empty their minds. "Losing thoughts and forgetting will be the equivalent of shedding pounds and dieting," says Riggio.
But if you want your mind to operate at maximum efficiency and speed right now, we have some less drastic suggestions to reduce information overload.
There are at least 11 good steps to take in order to fight through the fog while still trying to see what's happening in the world around you.
With more than 40 years of experience in advertising and marketing, Jack Trout is the acclaimed author of many marketing classics, including Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Marketing Warfare, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Differentiate or Die, Big Brands, Big Trouble, A Genie's Wisdom and his latest, Trout on Strategy.
He is president of marketing consultancy Trout & Partners and has consulted for such companies as AT&T, IBM, Southwest Airlines, Merck, Procter & Gamble and others. Recognized as one of the world's foremost marketing strategists, Trout is the originator of "positioning" and other important concepts in marketing strategy.
