Data, Information, Knowledge, and wisdom
Sunday, June 11th, 2006Why is it that we expect that we can merely increase promotion of a product and dominate the market? At what point is it merely too noisey for us to break through?
Al Ries teaches us that in the United States, each year some 30,000 books are published. Every year, another 30,000 are published. This doesn’t sound like a lot until you realize it would take 17 years of reading 24 hours a day just to finish one year’s output. I tend to think of myself as a voracious reader. Granted, I’m not your typical reader of novels and entertaining readings. Instead, I occupy my free time with business texts.
Our information society has created an information glut that overloads every participant sooner or later. This reality has contributed to the diminished effectiveness of advertising and the increased competition for the attention of the customer.
How does this work? Processes create data. When that data is strung together in a meaningful way, it becomes information. Information then, can be analyzed and interpreted to form the benefit of knowledge. With knowledge comes wisdom.
The information age and the knowledge worker is a strong and incredibly beneficial innovation in today’s market, but it has created a new set of pressures and challenges for the market.
The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him, and sells itself.â€
-Peter Drucker
When a company is able to create a self-sustaining feedback loop, the company has actually transcended and achieved the pinnacle of marketing excellence defined by Drucker above. The product resonates with the customer, and the customer is compelled to communicate their emotional experiences with the product to the public.
