Ironically - Too Obvious

Non Obvious is simply an enlargement on various consultant-speak concepts, like “Think outside the box.” It is a handbook for sharpening a brand and customers’ “relationship” to it. It all began in 2004 when Barghava ran out of ideas for his blog – after the first one. It was a Guy Kawasaki moment that changed his life to constantly being on the lookout for content to repurpose. He took it farther, though. He synthesized multiple sources to determine a new “trend”.

The book has three parts. First: how to determine trends. Clip articles and look at them later for commonalities. Then think of a fabulous name for what you determined, never more than two words. Make one up if you have to (eg. Shoptimizing). Part two: 15 trends for 2015. Every one of them could have been 2014 and every one could also be 2016. And many aren’t trends at all. Third: how to run workshops to sharpen your brand. There is nothing innovative about workshops, and this is little more than a very long, repetitive shopping list.

From the title, the most interesting part should be part two, trends for 2015. This is what I came here to learn, since they are non obvious. But it is easy to argue with them, and they became tedious. Just two examples should suffice:

Chapter 9, Reluctant Marketer, proposes there is a trend where Chief Marketing Officers are abandoning their titles as marketing becomes content oriented. They are supposedly backing away from marketing duties in favor of content strategies. This is absurd to any real CMO, who knows that the more media you employ, the better the result. Content marketing is not replacing other marketing, it is an additional tool. You leverage them all in integrated marketing. It is not a “trend”.

Chapter 16 on owning and leveraging your own data is laughable, as our every move is tracked. Phones are personal tracking devices, abetted by debit cards, and road toll devices. The government records every piece of mail sent to you, knows who e-mails you and who you phone. And you are not allowed to see the data you created. To describe the “trend” as giving control to the generator of the data is priceless humor.

He calls trends “curated observations”, meaning thought and selection went into them. If you don’t want to do the brainwork, there are sites like trendwatching.com, where others have. Mostly, these aren’t so much trends as exceptions. Companies are forever trying things. Some stick, most don’t. Barghava opens chapter 23 with the astonishing statement “It’s never been a better time to be an employee.” Unless, like most, you are underemployed, with less than full hours, low pay, no benefits, no union and no security. His point is there are lots of companies trying things. But his statement is sorely misconstrued.

Barghava consults for major firms worldwide, teaching these methods. Evidently, there are thousands of workers responsible for brands who just don’t get it. I found it all extraordinarily obvious.

David Wineberg ( )