Joshua Smith Quotes

People learn by comparison.

They learn by comparing new things to the things they already know. That’s why redefining a category is much easier than creating a new one.

When you position your product in an existing category you’re essentially saying “it’s like something you already know but better”.

When you try to create a new product category you’re essentially saying “it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before”.

That’s a provocative statement, but hard to learn by.

Joshua Porter “How to redefine a product category” (via peterspear)
Joshua Smith Quotes

It can be easy to settle on something that feels right. Something that seems to make sense of all the confusion.

You’ll feel relief when you get to this point. You’ll think you’ve cracked it. You’ll feel good.

But then you have to take a step back from what feels really good and ask:

But is it great?

Hegarty on Creativity by Sir John Hegaty of BBH
Joshua Smith Quotes

Respect don’t revere.

Putting anyone on a pedestal is dangerous. It implies they’re better than everyone else; but they’re not.

We’re all stepping-stones for the next generation.

Hegarty on Creativity by Sir John Hegaty of BBH
Joshua Smith Quotes

When it comes time to pitch, you’ll be amazed by how powerful your persuasion skills have become simply because you understand a little more about the field and what drives it.

Hegarty on Creativity by Sir John Hegaty of BBH
Joshua Smith Quotes

Participation isn’t enough.

Having a more clear-sighted view on people’s real world buying behaviours and thus which consumers actually matter to the generation of revenue and profit begins to gives us a framework for thinking about participation.

The Participation Paradox by Martin Weigel
Joshua Smith interview

The people LEAST likely to engage deeply are the MOST important for growth.

There is a way out of this paradox. But it requires us to embrace two principles:

1) Battle for interest, not attention

2)Fans are actors, not the audience

The Participation Paradox by Martin Weigel
Joshua Smith interview

Creativity isn’t an objective pursuit. Its value can’t be measured the way other skills can be.

Eventually, of course, its value will be confirmed, but often long after it was created.

Hegarty on Creativity by Sir John Hegaty of BBH
Joshua Smith interview

The purpose of marketing is not merely to secure the attention, participation and purchases of the fans alone.

Brands depend on retaining and attracting legions of buyers who don’t know our brand well, and don’t buy it very often.

The Participation Paradox by Martin Weigel
Joshua Smith interview

Your tool of persuasion might be a paintbrush or a guitar, but it’s your audience’s mind that you really want.

Once you’ve captured a corner of that, you’ll have made it.

Hegarty on Creativity by Sir John Hegaty of BBH
Joshua Smith interview

Asking a consumer about something overrides the natural state that thing occupies in his or her experience.

It’s very hard to preempt what people will find interesting or attention worthy – which makes it very risky to presume by asking them a question about it.

When research has put a focus on the issue it’s investigating that causes people to consider it in a way they otherwise wouldn’t, it has manufactured the response it gets.

Consumer.ology by Philip Graves
Joshua Smith interview

The best briefs are when the creative team leaves the brief meeting with ideas already in their head.

If your brief is boring, or leaves the creative team with more questions than answers, or worst, demotivated, then your creative brief was a failure.

Include just enough information to spark creativity- you should be able to accomplish this in one page.

42. Ivan Pejcic, Strategic Planner for Ogilvy
Joshua Smith interview

Manipulation isn’t necessarily pejorative; it’s a very common and fairly benign tactic.

Typical manipulations to influence behavior include:

– Dropping the price
– Running a promotion
– Using fear Peer pressure
– Aspirational messages
– Promising innovation

Start With Why by Simon Sinek
Joshua Smith interview

Most people aren’t exclusively loyal.

Most people aren’t devoted to a single brand and are very happy to buy regularly from a range of brands.

They have their loyalties. But they are polygamously loyal.

And this is reflected in buying patterns – brands share their customers with other brands, and they do so roughly in line with their market shares.

The Participation Paradox by Martin Weigel