How the Most Ultimate Marketing Campaign Can Kill Your Brand

Marketing is about selling benefits, not features: "don't sell the post-hole digger, sell the post-hole".

I am a philosopher, aspiring to become a Philosopher. Like others esteeming the Analytic tradition, I am after the most ultimate statements ever. My tendency when putting together marketing campaigns is to start with the most ultimate desires a human could have, and work backwards, demonstrating why these can be obtained by X's, which can be obtained by Y's, which can be obtained by the product I am selling.

The problem with ultimate marketing campaigns is that they drown people and ultimately fail to communicate their originally intended messages. The reality is that benefits are 100% relative. Or, more specifically, perceived benefits (which are what people really buy) are literally 100% relative, like all perceptions (by definition).

There is no need to sell a computer geek on the idea that he needs a computer in order to make his life more efficient, and he needs your new efficiency-cultivating software in order to extend that goal. He already has or wants a computer, so meet him where he's at. Don't make your marketing campaign ultimate: make it contexual.