Focusing on Attention is Key to Winning in Today’s Economy
Can I have your attention please? Can I have your attention please?
If you haven’t noticed yet, we currently live in the Attention Economy.
Attention Economy Explained
There is a principle in economics called scarcity, which is caused when there isn’t enough supply to meet the demand. As an example, say you are a frat bro getting ready to rage with your favorite sorority girls. They want to enjoy some White Claws, so you head to the nearest store to get a pallet or two of those tasty sugar distilled (I mean healthy) alcoholic beverages. When you get there…no White Claws! WTF! This is scarcity…
Alternatively, if we are thinking about this as a CPG brand marketer, scarcity is when we want the attention of our audience, but are competing with thousands of other brands, people, and things for that finite resource.
As content has grown increasingly abundant and immediately available, attention becomes the limiting factor in the consumption of information.
Personally, I also undertake this same battle everyday as a content creating strategy consultant. If you think about it, I compete with my clients for the same scarce resource. I also compete against Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and every other company and person in the world for consumers’ attention.
A few weeks ago, I made a Linkedin Thanksgiving post giving my “thanks” to my connections for trusting me with their attention. (see post below)
I have always appreciated “attention” over some physical gift because I know it’s way more valuable in the grand scheme of life. That being said, I also know it comes with the responsibility to consistently return value. I even remind myself daily of my #1 personal core value…
Bring Value or STFU. Noise isn’t always music.
Attention is fleeting and its easy to “create noise” today, but creating noise isn’t always music to the ears of your listeners…
Attention Economy Winning Examples
Since we are at the end of 2019, I thought it would be fun to share a few examples of my favorite ways that consumer brands got our attention in the past year.
Popeyes Twitter War with Chick-fil-A
What was more attention getting in 2019 than Popeyes newly launched chicken sandwich? The product was getting organic word of mouth buzz, but just like the sandwich hitting the hot oil in the fryer, things changed with a simple tweet exchange…
Seeing the organic buzz of the Popeyes chicken sandwich (and its resemblance to their similar offerings), Chick-fil-A tweeted a restatement to remind everyone that they were the original and leading chicken sandwich purveyors. It was a passive aggressive swipe at Popeyes for copying Chick-fil-A’s chicken sandwich.
Popeyes decided to attack back in a very “social media” sarcastic language way and the rest is history!
The viral attention gained from this twitter war made the already tasty Popeyes chicken sandwich into 2019’s version of the 1998 Christmas Furby phenomenon…
Allbirds Responds in Unique Way to Amazon Knockoffs
There are 3 things in life that are certain:
- Death
- Taxes
- Amazon creating copy cats of uber-popular branded products
Based on that, it is no surprise that Amazon pointed their private label creation strategy in the direction of direct to consumer footwear company Allbirds.
If you are not aware of Allbirds, the footwear brand has become increasingly popular for their comfort, but also around their sustainability practices. (Note: I personally own a pair and they are amazing!)
The playbook for consumer brands that are targeted by Amazon copy cats is usually an emotional response that stems directly from the forthcoming loss of revenue. This was not exactly how Allbirds approached this challenge…
Allbirds Co-Founder Joey Zwillinger decided to write a Medium article calling out Amazon, not for stealing their design, but for not using their sustainable materials. He went on in the article asking Amazon to call Allbirds because they wanted to give them their playbook around sustainability. They put “the world above their pockets” in an emotionally-driven business moment. By doing this, Allbirds brought massive attention to their purpose-driven brand and created loads of new loyal fans.
Cheez-Its Creates Perfect Adult Summer Pairing
Cheese + Wine + Picnic = Perfect Summer Activity
…at least that is what I hear. I am more of a nachos, beer, and baseball game kind of guy myself. Regardless, did you happen to see the product launch where there was a boxed combination of Cheez-Its and several bottles of wine?
This boxed combination was a limited summer release to drive awareness to the Kellogg’s snacking brand. They had been running advertisements for years on Cheez-Its being made with real cheese, but this iconic pairing of food and beverage was sought to cement it completely with consumers.
What was the result? It sold out in 1 hours online!
Upset you didn’t get to grab the strategic partnership with House Wine, Kellogg’s did help interested customers by providing them with additional House Wine and Cheez-It combinations that they could make at home by separately purchasing the products from various brick-and-mortar retail partners.
