People’s lives revolve around their… well, lives – their interests, their activities, their families, their causes. Mike Arauz of undercurrent.com calls them desire paths. Meaning, everyday people explore avenues that lead them to their interests. For example, an avid reader probably spends a lot of time reading reviews and finding deals on amazon.com.

Guess what people don’t do everyday - search for new ways to buy your product, Google you or think about your company.

In the 1950’s, an advertiser could reach a huge portion of the population with one, single television commercial. In the digital media age, even if you scour the couch cushions for the ad dollars to put 30 seconds on American Idol – you won’t reach a fraction of your intended audience. Who watches TV in real time anymore?

So, unless you figure out what your target audience’s lives revolve around and set up shop right in the middle of their “desire path” you probably won’t get noticed. Take for example, Nike. They are certainly not the most inexpensive athletic shoe or even the most well made, so how are they the best selling? They have aligned themselves with the passions of their audience: running, fitness, endurance. Nike has taken their emotionally charged messaging and integrated into the daily, interest exploring avenues of their customer.

In order to be relevant, you must delve into the lives of your consumers and discover their passions. Make their passions your passions and get involved.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 11:01 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.