In 1980 in their book “Positioning” Al Ries and Jack Trout discuss marketing and communication. They outline to us the “over-communicated society” at the time:
“There is television. Commercial, cable, and pay.
There’s radio. AM and FM.
There’s outdoor. Posters and billboards.
There are newspapers. Morning, evening, daily, weekly, and Sunday.”
They go on to discuss the importance of “positioning” in the mind as the only way to communicate with the people you seek to serve.
Well, email and the internet started to take off 10 years later and we all know what has happened now.
Things have changed, a lot. But the thing is, the book is just as relevant today. The nature of the mind has not changed. We simply have a lot more platforms, broader reach and greater connectivity.
We are still over-communicated. It still impacts how we connect with others. If we like, we still can use practices which have been available since the beginning, to relieve some of these inputs and help cut out some noise for our selves.
“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”
or,
“The more things change, the more they remain the same.” – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr
