Delivering an Experience

What is it? My dear?
Ah, how can we bear it?
Bear what?
This. For so short a time. How can we sleep this time away?
We can be quiet together, and pretend - since it is only the beginning - that we have all the time in the world.
And every day we shall have less. And then none.
Would you rather, therefore, have had nothing at all?
No. This is where I have always been coming to.
Since my time began. And when I go away from here, this will be the mid-point, to which everything ran before, and from which everything will run.
But now, my love, we are here, we are now, and those other times are running elsewhere.

[A.S. Byatt, Possession from The Time Traveler's Wife]

You can still get the gist of this dialogue, even if you haven't read the book. This has been an interesting week. We talked about who decides if people get it or not; we also heard the story of a person who did not merely survived a stroke - she lived to tell us what it felt like. It keeps going back to how we make people feel - in marketing, and in life. That, in turn, becomes the experience of us.

What do we leave in our wake? There are some who are ready to throw away all traditional and new marketing (and the marketers) with the proverbial bathwater. I say that there are good executions and sloppy or harried executions everywhere. There are plenty of nonsensical executions and experiences in what we continue to label social media - just because we want it, now! It pays to be patient, and to follow a carefully crafted plan. Note the words - care and craft.

Do we spend enough of our energy and time caring about how we craft an experience for others? Conversation used to be an art. Today we slap on a tone and language more often than not. Over and over, you may notice that what gets passed on is funny in a witty way, or profound in a simple way. Words are funny things - they can change everything.

Try "love" and let me know how it goes.

Today at The Blog Herald we are talking about delivering brand experiences with your blog.

Comments

[Peter]

I've been thinking about your expression "what do we leave in our wake".

It's a curious metaphor.

In my observation, the wake of humanity travels forward - I notice that my consequences are marching/sneaking out in front of me. I meet them all the time - some I recognise others I pass by like a forgotten face from my past.

This is why the intent with which we live is so important - the future we didn't intend is, in part, found in the intent in which we lived the past.

It's not one (intent) or the other (intend) - at different times what we intend directs, at others, our intent, seen in unintended opportunities or crisis direct the course of life.

I guess you have to work at both (though I've observed that we seem to live in an age that is pre-occupied with intending things without any time for figuring out what intent work best).

Thanks for the excuse to gather some thoughts.

[Valeria Maltoni]

I had not thought of it that way and now that you point in that direction and make the distinction it opens up new possibilities.

"I've observed that we seem to live in an age that is pre-occupied with intending things without any time for figuring out what intent works best." Not to self. Thank you, Peter.