Familiar is ignored.
New lights up our brains.
That’s why you can’t just say the obvious thing and expect your marketing to work.
You have to find a non-obvious idea.
But how?
Well you can’t go to AI and just say give me non-obvious marketing ideas for XYZ.
AI is like a database of the known.
Non-obvious ideas come from the unknown.
Well not quite actually.
They come from your brain.
Everything you’ve ever learnt.
It’s all in there.
Then you add the specifics of what you’re marketing.
Let’s say it’s coffee, because I feel like coffee right now.
All my life’s experiences are in my brain.
I add knowledge about coffee then set my brain to work.
Come up with a tagline for a new coffee, as an example.
I think and think and think.
Then I stop and go do something unrelated.
Gradually the ideas start to come.
Some are awful.
Some may be good. One may even be great.
I write them down as they come and then test them in the real world.
But only when I find something non-obvious.
Something I don’t know has been used before.
Back to coffee.
What if I associated coffee with life support?
When you die in hospital the screen flatlines.
How can I combine coffee with that.
Here’s one idea.
Never flatline again.
Underneath you’d have the brand.
Is this a great idea? Probably not.
Is it non-obvious? Yes.
Took me a minute to come up with it.
In reality I’d spend hours/days to get the perfect line.
But anyone can do it.
You just have to decide you’re going to train yourself to become a non-obvious thinker.