We're A Nation Of Lazy Communicators
A big part of the reason many advertisers have a hard time communicating effectively is because of the society we live in. Stated simply, our society has turned us into a bunch of communication zombies. Don't think so? See if this scenario sounds familiar. When you get home from work, your spouse asks you how your day was. What do you usually say? Fine. Okay. I'm tired. Great. It stunk. Basically, you come up with a one to three word description of your day and leave it at that. But do these words actually communicate anything? No! They're just obligatory niceties. Now let's say you see someone you know at the store and you say, "Hey Bob, whatcha doin'?" like you really care or can't just tell by looking. Bob says, "Fine," which is actually the answer to the other question he was expecting, which is "How Ya Doin'?" Come on, you know that's happened to you - lots of times. The reason we react this way is that we are a society of lazy communicators...we are on communication autopilot. Don't think, just talk. We've been brought up this way in this country for some reason. Ask any little kid how he or she is doing and they'll almost surely give the universal kid's answer to that question. "How ya doing, Billy?" What's the answer? That's right, "Fiiiiiine."
We learned at a very young age that if we give the communication autopilot answer to routine questions, it saves us from having to actually think and put any effort into a conversation. It's a useful shortcut. And that serves us well in many situations. Just think if you had to honestly and accurately answer every question that anyone ever asked you. It would be a complete nightmare:
How ya doin', Bruce? Well, let me tell you how I'm doing. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd say that I'm at about a 2 and a half. I left the house this morning and forgot my briefcase, which turns out was okay because I ran out of gas and had to have my wife come bail me out, so she just brought the briefcase with the gas can. When I finally got to work, there were two people out sick and the reports that I needed for my client weren't done and then I got a call from a major account with a major problem and. Well, I think you get the point.
More Tomorrow.
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We're A Nation Of Lazy Communicators - Adult B2B Marketing Tip
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