We spend time thinking about what makes people, our prospective buyers, tick. How they research. How they choose.
We spend time thinking about our competitors. What can we learn from them. How do they present themselves.
We spend time thinking about our own brand. The methods that entice customers. How we market those methods.
We spend time thinking about our business. How we manage costs. How we delegate roles.
We rarely consider our own conventions.
We spend time thinking about how we can change the actions, the views, the conventions of those around us. We rarely look to change our own ways. Why? Because we don’t have the time. Sense the irony?
- how do we build our ideas?
- how do we test our ideas?
- how do we fuel change through those ideas?
It’s a marketing paradox. We know what we could be doing, what we should be doing, but we’re spending all of our time justifying the actions that we take to change the ways of others – our buyers – through the conventional paths we’ve inherited from others.
JK Galbraith taught us that “The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.”
Breaking convention isn’t about thinking. It’s about doing. Doing, with purpose.
Before you can challenge the methods of your audience, your market, your brand or your company, you challenge your own conventions. Make some time in your diary. Be inspired by what’s going on outside of your industry walls. Read the blogs, read the books. Talk to others outside of your organisation. Gain perspective. Only when you’re prepared to break convention yourself will you impact upon those whose conventions you’re looking to break.
The Hierarchy of Convention
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