Or to put it more practically: „We’ve always done it that way, and we’ll keep on doing it that way. And why? „Because we’ve always done it that way.“
Basically, this attitude is not even completely wrong. After all, it follows the well-known principle of not working on one’s weaknesses but improving one’s strengths. We must also admit that the above sentence may also include risk minimization, savings potential, security, tradition, existing know how and routine/efficiency. Features that successful advertising – such as unprecedented, striking, amazing, creative, unique and innovative ‑are not supported. But with every decision that is implemented in the familiar way, the distance to the new mechanisms that are now taking place in the communications market increases.
So much for the soft factors, but the decision to „keep it up“ involves more than just those factors. Almost always, this decision is based on human nature and their primal principles. These are: People generally hate change. People who have a choice will always, without exception, follow a familiar path. There is nothing people are more afraid of than the unknown. Indeed, the unknown often harbors unpredictable risks, incalculable costs, an open-ended outcome that is often difficult to assess – but, above all, the responsibility that one assumes when making any kind of decision.
Responsibility – a term that also means risk. Who, except for a few fearless and courageous exceptions wants to risk anything today? And that brings us back to our first question: Why? It also works using the tried and true – just like the proverbial farmer who does not eat what he has never seen – based on his experience and his code of conduct. From the familiar, he can judge taste, cost and ingredients just as well as quantity, quality and enjoyment factor – the best prerequisites for ensuring to get totally fed up. However, he will not experience new food trends and unknown pleasures in this way.
In the past, one could survive with this attitude for a while. Today, however, during the course of digitalization, wars, environmental pollution… and the volatility that comes along, risk is part of everyday life. Even if no one voluntarily exchanges things they know (and which have worked for decades) for uncertain factors, you cannot avoid it. In communication, this means that people, their values and hierarchies, have not changed, altered, or been redefined. But the world has changed. Whether for better or worse, only the future can tell us. Even if we do not like it, have the courage to use your brain (Kant) and search for new, creative and lasting communication strategies and channels, because only those are striking and effective.
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