Mike Arauz's Blog – The Archives

Consumers have raised the stakes of the game. In order to earn a person's time, attention, and money, brands have to be able to answer this question: How will engaging with this brand help me to become a more effective champion of the most important, meaningful, or inspiring interests in my life?

It's no small challenge. But, the new communications landscape demands it.

If you could do anything you wanted, what would you do?

In the past few years, hundreds of millions of people around the world have begun to confront this question as they explore the endless possibilities created by the internet. If you could communicate instantaneously with any other person, or huge groups of people, anywhere in the world for free, what would you tell them? If you had the tools to facilitate conversations and organize groups of people, without the limits of time or space, what would you ask them to do? If you could mobilize and work with an unlimited number of people who shared your passion for a particular cause, what would be your mission?

These questions used to be hypothetical; now they’re real.

Our answers to these questions reveal our most personal curiosities, interests, and passions. The answers are also informing the decisions of consumers every day as they choose which brands deserve their time, attention, and money.

This is the start of my contribution to Sean Howard's e-book The Passion Economy: Opportunity for Brands, or Just a Fad? (PDF)

This is a desire path (lots more here). Desire paths are the walking paths that get traced across the ground when groups of people, over time, leave the sidewalk and find their own more convenient routes from one place to another. The internet is an endless forest filled with desire paths.

We have many places to go and experiences to choose from; and our decisions are guided by our personal interests and the groups of people we want to join.

Opportunities for brands to reach individuals in mass audiences are quickly vanishing. In order to reach people now, you have to find a way to cross paths with them on their own terms, where they choose to spend time. And those places are defined by people's passions. People's lives don't revolve around your brand, they revolve around life.

In order for a brand to connect with consumers, the brand has to be passionate about something more important than their product (be passionate about your product, of course, but don't stop there). Apple is passionate about making great computer devices, yes, but more importantly they're passionate about great design and personal expression. If you're a person who travels the design desire path, you can bet that you bring your Mac gadget with you on that journey.

This is the new playing field. Is your brand up for the challenge?