My wife’s car, her pride and joy – a U.S. Marine red Jeep Liberty – was sideswiped this morning by person or persons unknown. We suspect that the damage was done in our health club parking lot. Not much damage to the vehicle, but the paint job is seriously pooched. Given what I know about automotive painting, we’re probably going to have one of those claims that’s big enough to go past our deductible, but not much more, making even filing a claim a difficult decision. 

What kind of person scrapes up somebody’s car, then doesn’t take responsibility for it? No note, no appology, no nuthin.’ That’s aggravating, but it begs the bigger question – why is it okay to walk away from your responsibilities today, where it once was not?

Life as we know it has changed a lot in the last 50 years. Five decades ago, we barely had three TV channels. No satellites or cable. No FM radio. No computers, no Internet. But we did have a sort of moral code, that meant you were supposed to take personal responsibility for whatever you did. 

Today, few take responsibility for anything. Politicians, sports stars, Hollywood stars, CEOs – virtually everybody we once looked up to are no longer worthy of our admiration and respect, largely because they refuse to take responsibility for their actions. “It was the drugs/alcohol talking.” “Peer pressure made me do it.” “They misunderstood…I have a wide stance.” No matter what the offense, the standard operating proceedure is to 1) deny, deny, deny, 2) blame someone else, 3) go into rehab/hiding, 4) write a book, 5) resume your career. Look at David Duchovny. In the old days, if you cheated on your wife and got caught, you were looked down upon as a lowlife sleaze. You were ostracized from polite company. Duchovny got caught and promptly checked himself in to a rehab facility specializing in “sexual addictions.” A month later, he’s out, and the world is expected to forgive and forget. 

So what does this have to do with marketing?

Plenty, if you think it’s important to knowing the people you target. 

Here’s the bottom line. There’s a certain segment of the populace that believes in traditional American values – self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and a can-do attitude, wrapped in a hard shell of personal responsibility. These are the people protesting the financial system bailout, on the basis that it’s more harmful to reward the bad actors for the sake of the economy, rather than taking our medicine. These people are in the minority. Another segment – a far larger one – I characterize as “sheeple.” They’re interested in not what they can do for the common good, but what the government dole can do for them. Personal responsibility is a fine concept, as long as it’s not required of them. There’s a third group – one who is largely clueless about everything. They have no idea what’s going on and are more or less disengaged from the entire process. 

Think about it this way: There are people that make things happen (the personal-responsibility crowd) People that watch things happen, and expect a cut of the action (the sheeple), and people that don’t know what’s happening (the cluess). So who are you marketing to – and are you taking their outlooks into account?

If you are marketing to entrepreneurs, for instance, they mostly fit into the self-motivated crowd. Telling these people that the world owes them a living, and you can get something for nothing is a fast way to lose all credibility. If you are marketing to those who like to skirt personal responsibility, your message can be tailored much more towards the “get something for nothing” idea, where you can sway them with the standards: greed, avarice, and the unholy trio of fear, uncertainty and doubt (the so-called “FUD” factor). Marketing to clueless people is much dicier. After all, they are clueless. 

The sad thing today is that the market segment of those who take no responsibility for their actions is growing much faster than the side that believes personal responsibility is essential. Take this into account the next time you start to put a marketing campaign together. I’m NOT advocating pandering to those that don’t take responsibility by marketing to their egos and baser instincts. However, it’s insane to ignore this factor if you’re going to market your products. It’s not right and it’s not wrong. It’s just a fact of life.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 4:40 pm and is filed under marketing.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.