Parenting. Marketing. Same Thing.

Marketing requires the insane skill of getting the attention from the right target audience, by saying the right things, at the right time, and then some. But what happens when an ad tries to get your attention every few seconds? Everyone is trying to sell something to someone.

Having to engage two kids is no mean feat. They are very active and continuously get drawn to sights and sounds effervescing around them, while their minds travel at hyper speeds - well, at least it seems that way to me.

Knowing our target customers, and what makes them tick, is the key to drawing their attention. It's like when I rattle my daughter's favourite plushie; or when I play my son's favourite song on the guitar. Their attention gravitates toward me. And now that I have their attention, I must say and do something that would keep it. "Let's read your favourite book" or "Let's sing a song" usually does the trick.

Then, we have to keep their attention and make them desire to act on the response that we want. "Let's go to bed", I would suggest. "No!", and I'd end up with a toddler toddling about way past bedtime.

But all these must stem from the intent to do something - a direction of sorts. I want my children to grow up happy and have a passion for contributing positively to individuals and communities.

It's the same for our craft. Great Marketing stems from the innate desire embark on a journey to meet distinct milestones and checkpoints while creating specific byproducts along the way.

For brands and businesses, they must set themselves on a similar path (albeit a different trajectory), and strive to add value to individuals and communities. Then, revenue will appear as a byproduct; it is a receipt of your positive doing for others and should motivate you to want to do more of that.

Then, there are the grandparents. Managing multiple stakeholders with differing views and interests can be excruciating. But I'll leave this for another day.

Stay Safe