A whole lot of talk. . . and saying what?

One of my favorite business books in the whole world is ZAG - by Marty Neumeier.  His whole premise  is to help you figure out how to build a brand that's Zagging when all other's are Zigging.

One of his ideas that stuck with me is the idea of marketplace clutter - which takes place in 5 forms:

1. Product Clutter

2. Feature Clutter

3. Advertising Clutter

4. Message Clutter

5. Media Clutter

So at the end of the day the amount of clutter that we are exposed to is enormous. Now if we look at just 3 and 4 alone, the amount of advertising and the amount of messages they contain, the bombardment can be overwhelming. From television ads to magazine ads to ads on the web - its flat out - alot. I think it wouldn't be a far stretch to say that today many of these commercials and ad campaigns are like Charlie Brown listening to his teacher . . . womp, womp, womp, womp, womp, womp. We hear you, but are you really saying anything?

Often it all melds together into a big pot of goop that we don't pay that much attention to. 

One of the best marketing statements to ever be said was "less is more".  Stated brilliantly by (a non-marketing professional) Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a pioneering architect of the modern movement whose intention with this statement was NOT to address the marketing world, but as design meets business in today's market it makes tons of sense. Now when juxtaposing Mies' aphorism with Marty's argument of marketplace clutter - the idea becomes immediately significant. 

If you were tasked with telling people about an idea that you think would be of value to their life, how do you address your audience and leave a lasting impression? How would you accomplish this instead of having very little impact and having people simply hear blah, blah, blah, blah, blah?