My daughter is in an interesting phase: She can read but she can’t comprehend fully what she’s reading. A picture book with a few sentences per page is perfect for her developmental stage. No, she wants to read a chapter book without any pictures. She proclaims proudly: “I’m on page 55.” When I ask her about the content, the answer is very sparse. When she gets her homework, she wants to get it done in a few seconds: “Easy peesy, lemon squeezy.” Once I note a mistake, she freaks out and never wants to touch any homework again.

Typical behavior for brands in the emerging marketing space

Many brands have not yet fully deployed all basic digital marketing tools. Instead of focusing on getting the fundamentals right, they rather develop a comprehensive Social Marketing strategy.

Others have deserted Facebook/Twitter/YouTube presences. Why bother improving these important platforms for their brand? Let’s just start a Pinterest page.

The fancy commercial not matching the dirty store layout.

The radio spot not matching the horrendous attitude of your employees.

The list is endless.

We should strive for innovation and amazing ideas

First, we need to clean-up the store.

Change the attitude of employees.

Get the fundamentals of marketing right.

Get the fundamentals of the business right.

Then, and only then, should you consider the newest platform aka toy.

15 years ago I was the digital expert in a traditional agency. Every time someone introduced me as such, a little piece of me died. I studied marketing communications, worked as a Creative Director for traditional media and still everybody pigeon holed me at one point as the digital dude.

The problem with being an expert is that it implies that a certain field can be serviced by one person. I was the digital dude when digital marketers had no seat at the table. Being a Social Media expert relegates you to the back room, to the place where no real decisions are made. As we know, digital marketing can’t be done by one person. The same is true for social. When it was early in the game, one person could service one or two platforms. In the future, social media will become everyone’s job and will be part of everybody’s job description. One way or another.

It’s not about social. It’s about business.

And it’s about getting serious. The objective is not to join the conversation anymore. The objective is to communicate with specific audiences to drive measurable business value. That audience might be on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or some niche platform but using those are just tactics not a strategy.

Nobody should be talking about social media strategies anymore. Instead, you need to talk about strategies that solve problems, based on an open culture with a focus on collaboration.

We have to stop talking about Social Media

We just have to integrate social into everything we do. Social is now as pervasive as digital. Let’s utilize to solve problems and move on.

While hosting a brand session in Kyoto, I was able to visit the Ryoanji Temple. Just like millions others, I didn’t come for the temple, I came for The Rock Garden. Built in the 15th century, the garden consists of raked gravel and fifteen moss-covered boulders, which are placed so that, when looking at the garden from any angle (other than from above) only fourteen of the boulders are visible at one time.  It is traditionally said that only through attaining enlightenment would one be able to view the fifteenth boulder.

No trees are to be seen; only fifteen rocks and white gravel are used in the garden. It is up to each visitor to find out for himself what this unique garden signifies. The longer you gaze at it, the more varied your imagination becomes. Some consider the garden as the quintessence of Zen art.

What do you see in the garden?

Some people see hills with their peaks poking above the clouds.

Some people see tigers crossing a river.

Some people see islands rising from the sea.

Some see a lake. Some see heaven itself.

Some people only see rocks.

What do you see in the garden?

What do you see in a brand?

Some people see a product.

Some people see a dream.

Some people see a bigger thought.

Some people see a passion.

What do you see in a brand?

Focus and simplicity.

Modern life is full of distractions. Our minds weren’t built to all the information coming at us constantly. Even when these temples and gardens were built, the outside city life was busy and full of entertaining distractions. Visiting a garden with a few rocks in it gives our mind just enough information to feel comfortable. It calms the mind, like calming water, allows the dirt to settle, and the water to clear.

Modern marketing and branding is full of distractions. We tend to to stray from the brand core, brand vision and mission – focus on diversions, things that have nothing to do with brand. The ever-changing marketing and technology landscape forces us to keep up, open new channels, engage and connect. Nothing wrong with that. But, once in a while, we have to go to back to the brand garden and calm the brand, like calming water, allow the diversions to settle, and the water to clear.

Perception is not reality.

Why is our thought deluded? Why can’t we perceive reality correctly? One reason is that we are usually limited to a single, subjective view. Our deluded perception constantly deceives us into making bad decisions. As mentioned above, at The Rock Garden 15 stones are arranged so that from any point, only 14 are visible. So how many stones are there? Like the stones, we can’t see everything all the time.

Why is our perception of brands deluded? Why can’t we perceive reality correctly? This is especially true when you are working every day on a brand. Because we’re so close, we’re becoming deluded. We’re projecting our own goals and objectives to our point of view. You might think you know your brand. Most likely, you’re just overlooking the blind spots.

There’s no “average”.

All things have an ultimate nature. A real existence that ordinary people’s minds are unprepared to see. When people see something, they immediately classify and label it. They are unable to make sense of reality without this process. This conceptualization process is based on our subjective experiences and always causes gross distortions.

Let’s say a new creature just arrived on earth. The creature doesn’t understand male and female, so you explain to the creature that women are on average shorter than men. The creature doesn’t understand subtleties like “on average” and will assume from now on that any shorter person is a woman. We’re all as stupid as the creature, constantly making incorrect assumptions about the world because of our limited system of thought.

All your focus groups, brand research and data analytics give you a “general” idea or an “on average” perception of your brand. You make assumptions about a brand based on subjective experiences working on it, and it will always cause gross distortions. When working on a brand, always assume you are as stupid as everyone, constantly making incorrect assumptions about the world because of your limited system of thought.

When facing a single tree, if you look at a single one of its red leaves, you will not see all the others. When the eye is not set on one leaf, and you face the tree with nothing at all in mind, any number of leaves are visible to the eye without limit. But if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there. – Takuan Soto

So many books, blog posts and articles have been written about leadership, internal culture and build the team you need for your business. I’ve been thinking about it for years, writing about it and trying to implement many of my findings in my own venture. It’s also very easy to talk about, debate with others and waste your time on it.

My kid has a busy schedule. She has to get up early in the morning to be in school on time, spend all day in school and then go to bed early evening. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for creating things, finding time to think and just be a kid. Over the last few months, she carved out time during the day to just create and think.

After breakfast, she demands half an hour just to play, create things and think. Same happens before she goes to bed.

Maybe it’s that easy:

Give your team the time and space to think and create.

When you look around at your business, is everybody just busy all the time? Does the busy work stifle thinking? How much better would your company perform if you actually give them the freedom to think things through and create based on their thinking?

Simple.

Powerful.

You just won’t attract the best builders in a command and control environment.

Set them free.