Guest Blog: If The Calculator Made Everyone Bad at Math, What is the iPhone Doing??

I used to have an uncanny sense of direction, and I could get from Point A to Point B without the need for a map or asking for directions. I just felt that I "knew" how to get where I wanted to go. Then I got a GPS unit, and ever since, I've become alarmingly dependent on it for the smallest of trips.

Rye Clifton, Senior Strategic Officer for The Martin Agency, one of the country's pre-eminent advertising agencies, recently expressed similar views, on the company blog and he joins us for this guest blog:

You no longer log on; you are constantly connected. Information is on demand and at your fingertips: phone numbers tied to faces tied to names tied to birthdays tied to addresses (possibly physical, definitely email).

Your phone is your alarm clock. Wake up anywhere in the world and Google maps can tell you how to get home. Check Facebook or MySpace and you might be able to figure out how you got wherever you are, see who you were with, and what you were wearing the night before. Those pictures are likely time stamped, geo-tagged, captioned, and commented on too.

No need to blog, no need for Twitter. Your iPhone can document your every move, organize and upload your memories and keep tabs on your life without ever having to write things down…which is convenient since that removes the subsequent necessity to read. 

Instead you watch, but channel surfing now means changing mediums, not networks. If you don’t fast-forward through an ad, you’re switching to another screen: emailing, instant messaging, text messaging or surfing. When you get so distracted that you miss your show, you simply rewind…or download the episode and take it with you.

In the meantime, you’re absorbing, seeking, sharing, spying…filling your bored mind with more and more information. If you remember the headlines, you can return for details. You no longer have to remember to remember; EVERYTHING IS A CLICK AWAY.

So what does this mean for branding? In a search-based society, it is critical to have a sought-after brand.

This means you can’t be the brand people are talking about…you have to be the brand people are asking about. What are they doing now? What will they do next? How can they help me?

Once people have all the answers, they stop asking questions…and they move on to something new. The brands that keep people guessing keep people coming back over and over again.

Apple just had a press conference, and people are already talking about what is next on the horizon. The reveal of new products and secrets leads to a new line of questions. People talk, communities grow, fanboys unite and loyalty builds (also, if you’re looking to define fanboy, Webster just added it…and if your brand doesn’t have any, you’re missing out).

Today, people advocate and defend their favorite brands like they would their favorite bands. When given a voice, they will stand up for your values and fight down the flames. They will let you know when you screw up and applaud you when you succeed. But to keep them loyal, you must keep them interested…keep them asking questions…or they may forget you like everything else.