So how do you market to sheeple?

Well, you can start with, by doing one of two things – going with the flow, or bucking the trends. For instance, Big Oil has seen the light – all their ads talk about the wonderful things they’re doing with alternative energy development. This is largely a survival tactic. GE is pushing “green” like there’s no tomorrow, but that’s not for surviving – they’ll thrive, since they have a huge part of the market for green lightbulbs and other (more expensive) replacments for current technology.

Go against the flow, and you have a tougher road to hoe, but (paradoxically) it’s easier to get noticed, simply because you stand out from the herd when you’re not singing from the same songbook that everyone else does.

Which one you choose depends on your own special circumstances and needs. Either way you go, it pays to keep your eyes and ears open, spending at least part of your time trend-spotting. Do that, and you’re likely to see market shifts before it becomes an emergency to change strategies or tatics. Fail to spot a trend, and you’ll end up wasting heads-up time, and potentially putting your enterprise in jeopardy.

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.

Here’s the truth: most people form their opinions based on what they see on TV, hear on the radio, or read in the newspapers, magazines, or online. We have a name for these folks. We call them sheeple (or homo ignoramus if you’re into Latin). The simple fact of the matter is, most people are too busy living their lives to be willing to put much effort into thinking, let alone thinking about things that don’t directly affect their daily lives on an immediate basis. If you DO have an opinion about Iraq, and it’s not something that you are simply parroting that you heard on your prefered news channel, then you are likely NOT a sheeple. If you sample information from more than one source, analyze the input, and form your own opinions based on that information filtered through your own experiences, logic, and deductive reasoning, then you are most certainly NOT a member of the sheeple group.

Unfortunately for humanity, you’re also part of a demographic that counts as about 2% of the population.

What can we take away from this, as marketers? Well, gentle reader, to understand the import of this, we have to return to the familiar mantra, Perception IS Reality.

You see, a majority of the general public suffers from information overload. Couple that with a general apathy, and a specific, narcicistic indifference to actually thinking about anything, and you have a recipe for a sound-byte society. From a marketing point of view, this means you have a nifty little paradox on your hands. It’s a lot less work to get people to make up their minds when they’re not interested in doing their own homework. However, it’s a lot more difficult to change perceptions, as you have so much competition in the business of changing perceptions.

Essentially, it comes down to telling your story, and you are in direct competition with every one else who’s telling a story. Everyone out there, from Bill Gates to yours’ truly has but 24 hours in the day. Your job is to get them to spend some time listening to your story. If it’s an engaging, compelling story, you have a chance (and only a chance, mind you) of compelling and convincing someone to buy your story, your product, or your service. If you’re story doesn’t sing, you don’t have a prayer.