Are we addicted to mediocrity?
I wish I had written this, or something like this:
The one possible weakness of this otherwise terrific little volume is that it is aimed solely at people who are creative, intelligent and want to succeed. Those who are mediocre, unmotivated or just coasting through life will probably not get much from Godin. He is not an elitist, but his message is squarely aimed at those who want to succeed or at least achieve excellence. From: Know a dip from a dead end - MiamiHerald.com
I’ve read most of Seth Godin’s output: books, magazine articles, blog posts, etc. I’ve often thought there was some sort of disconnect between the new generation of forward-thinking consumers Seth writes about, and the people I encounter day-to-day.
I was watching television a couple of weeks ago and this commercial came on that made no sense whatsoever. (I don’t remember the product.) I complained about the stupidity of it and the three others watching with me spent ten or a dozen minutes explaining what they felt the advertiser was trying to say. They did not see anything incongruous about having to take ten minutes to explain a 30–second ad spot.
There at least three reasons why most people accept mediocrity:
- We have become inured to bad customer interaction in all its forms. There’s a sense that bad marketing and desultory customer service is the normal cost of doing business. We may be entertained by creative advertising at Super Bowl time, but we generally expect something that shouts the latest no-interest, no-payment “deal” at our local furniture outlet.
- Most people will sacrifice quality for convenience. It doesn’t matter that WestJet has great customer service if the Air Canada flight gets me there 30 minutes earlier. We’ll eat tasteless produce from Safeway rather spend an extra hour and five more dollars at the farmer’s market.
- People find it hard to break with tradition. My grandfather drove a GM product, my father drove a GM product, I’m going to drive a GM product. So what if the bank adds to its already obscene profits by raising my fees, I’ve banked there all my life and I don’t want to change.
These are my quick and dirty thoughts, with lots of room for discussion and debate. I agree with Richard Pachter that there are those that seek constant improvement. But I also think that they are in the minority.
How about you? What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Related Posts:
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
Both the original blog post and the first comment remind me of some fundamental economic principles I learned when first delving into the subject (it has now become my passion):
1) People are rational and respond to incentives
2) People create their own list of priorities and values of what they look for in a product: we call these tastes and preferences, and there’s no accounting for them
3) Tradition is as much a part of any economic structure as anything; in fact, it may define how people interact with each other, creating issues if we don’t stop to view that economy from a different POV
We make decisions based on the information we receive. In that way, you can think of marketers as either deceiving us (working for the other guy) or helping us (getting the right information out). It really all depends on who hires them as to which role they fulfill.
People that choose convenience over anything else do so for a reason. I’ll fly on a cheaper airline, even if we have to stop 3 times and don’t get served any food. Of course, my college budgetary constraints factor into that equation as well.
Breaking with tradition is difficult… not because people are afraid of change but because people are unsure of the future; hence, people are risk-averse, but its really not as sinister as being scared… its just making the right decisions based on the information you have, and we know nothing about the future.
Great post! I look forward to more!
Nice posting. Entertaining, interesting, and well written.
I’m Dave the WestJetter (that is to say, both a WestJet employee and also an owner). I have to agree with Jeffrey Horn on this one. We have been finding that our great service has made a difference in terms of people choosing to fly WestJet.
I only joined WestJet a couple of years ago, and I am very impressed with the strong culture and how that translates into great experience for our guests.
You may have seen our WestJet ads on TV. While some of them seem “out there” and unbelievable, they are actually based on true stories. For instance, I have heard two instances of the “cell phone story” - both true - where our Flight Attendant managed to return the phone to the owner. For entertainment purposes there is some fun exaggeration in the commercials - our Flight Attendants won’t actually sell your jet ski :^).
Thanks for your post.
Dave the WestJetter
Fear may be the biggest cause of mediocrity. It’s often easier to go with the flow and hide in the shadows. For the risk-averse, ”no guts, no glory” holds little appeal. In fact, they are probably terrified of glory and cherish their lives of quiet desperation. For them, Godin may have kind thoughts, but he offers little else except maybe inspiration and a glimpse of what could be.