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Recovering backpacker, Cornwallite at heart, political enthusiast, catalyst, writer, husband, father, community volunteer, unabashedly proud Canadian. Every hyperlink connects to something related directly or thematically to that which is highlighted.

Tuesday, 19 November 2013

Easy is Difficult (Geoff Livingston)


Easy Is Difficult


Methods behind decent products or services tend to be complicated. Expertise, innovation and development create new processes and approaches worth buying.
 
That doesn’t mean that communications about a product or service should be difficult to understand. A marketer’s job is to make it easy for people to understand products and services. In fact, the value of x should be obvious.
 
Yet, when we consider complex offerings created by ourselves and our companies, we struggle to find that simplicity. In fact, we are insulted by simplistic descriptions, as if they devalue the weeks, months and years invested into creating our effort.
 
Don’t fool youself.
 
In the attention economy no one has time for you to explain things. People cannot afford to invest weeks, days or even an hour learning about your effort. Outreach must be obvious and factual, clearly communicating the outcome that people will receive.
 
Easy extends beyond the marketing. An easy message coupled with a difficult product or services equals a dissapointed customer.
 
Ideally, the product is easy to use. One thing I love about Fuelband is how a technology that involves several complex elements is so easy to use. It’s well explained. Fuelband is obvious to me, and doesn’t waste my time with why the technology works. I really don’t care. It just does. That makes it easy.
 
How many things do you buy that are hard to understand?
 
Easy to understand, easy to use may seem trite and obvious. Yet, so few companies and communicators achieve this goal. Easy is difficult.
 
What do you think?

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