I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “It tastes like chicken.” It’s a common phrase used to describe almost any food that tastes so similar to chicken it could be mistaken for the non-flying, mass-consumed bird we know as poultry.

So what does marketing have to do with chicken?

Our world is filled with marketing that is so-so, bland, mundane, the same, ordinary. You get where I’m going with this. I don’t think anyone would argue that we’ve been oversaturated, overstimulated, overpopulated and desensitized with messages we’ve seen before. It’s a common problem with marketing.

But it’s not our fault – everything has been done. Coming up with something totally original is like throwing a dart in the air and hoping you’ll hit the moon. Impossible right? If you could listen to marketers’ thoughts, that’s what you’d hear. Internal dialogues and struggles happening right under the roofs of the agencies designed (and hired) to create original ideas. They might not be discussing the problem out loud, but they’re thinking it.

That’s the problem in a very small nutshell. We get it.
So how do we fix it?

Before you think I’m here to tell you I have the solution to the world’s marketing problems, I don’t. If you’re looking for an automatic fix, stop now, because it doesn’t exist. No, instead what I’m here to tell you is that by knowing the problem plaguing the marketing industry, you’ll be able to make better decisions going forward. You’ll be able to begin creating better marketing strategies for your business.

Help the chicken cross the road.

The road to standing out and the way to taste like steak in a world filled with chicken is long and complicated. But it can be done. The first step is to create a marketing strategy that is refreshing, smart, interesting. Make people think. Take a chance. Dream bigger. Do more. Don’t settle.

It might seem like these are umbrella statements filled with large, overly inflated positive reinforcement. We get that. And we very well may have delusions of grandeur. But this is how all great marketing strategies start. Crossing the threshold of the ordinary usually begins with the same old thing and ends with a brilliant, non-chicken-flavored idea.