Marketing Perfection, or Marfection, has long been the standard by which we live. Like it or not. From what we buy, to what we wear, to how we present ourselves to others… the list goes on and on. Marketing and branding have been an integral part of our lives from the moment we arrived in this world. Celebrities tell us what we should think and how we should look…marketing takes that a step further by moulding what we believe to be “perfection”…and what with social media, all bets seem off. We all want to lead “the perfect life”, but is “perfection” truly what we believe it to be, or is it merely some kind of Deep Fake that makes us believe that we know what we want? Perfect is as perfect does.
Dress for success, you are what you eat, fake it ‘til you make it…the list of catch phrases that are supposed to be helpful guideposts along our journey to realization seems endless. Marketing, coupled with so-called “narrow casting”, has made our personal trek even more of a rabbit hole – one laden with seductive landmines. Social Media is awash with everything from head-turning events to vacation pics. No one ever posts about such riveting events as putting socks in a drawer on a Tuesday afternoon. But it’s not all social media influencers and marketing moguls who feed our voraciously perfection-driven appetites with interesting and click-baitable “sound bite” facts. The nightly news is guilty of the same. In a world of “If It bleeds, it leads”, we rarely hear of a reporter standing next to someone’s home reporting how – for the third consecutive day – the people inside are stress-free, about to have dinner, and all is “Just peachy! Back to you in the studio.”
Snore
While it’s true that we need to cut through all the mundane clutter, over-the-top idealistic sensationalism isn’t great either. Whether it’s one extreme (yawn) or another (YAY!), extremes are rarely a good thing. Nor are they particularly real/believable or a true picture of our day-to-day existence. That’s where marketing comes in. Cue the veil nestling gently across our rose-coloured glasses.
Future Perfect: The Grass is Always Greener
TPL – The Perfect Life. We all strive for it. We all yearn for it. But do we all need it? In advertising and all around us, we see a world of pretty people doing pretty wonderful things in pretty amazing places. They seem to be leading that legendary Perfect Life. The demeanour of people in ads, and their overly bright surroundings, has often been described as “The world is fantastic, and only getting better!!” Like the song says: everything is, indeed, awesome.
Sir Alfred Hitchcock once said, “Movies are life, with all the boring parts cut out.” He’s right. The last person who put nothing but their eating habits and washroom breaks on their resume is – unless they were applying for a particularly odd job – likely still unemployed. In 1985, Jamie Lee Curtis and John Travolta starred in the workout-centred film Perfect. A year later, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dave Stieb penned an autobiography titled Tomorrow I’ll Be Perfect. Though none of the three were speaking of the perfect life (at least not directly) – with Curtis and Travolta referring more to the perfect body and Stieb nodding to a perfect game – the same desire for perfection is as powerful within us today as it was nearly four decades ago.
Perfection is in the eye of the beholder
One tool that is greatly beneficial towards achieving the perfect life or perfect product: be an active listener. When distributors and salespeople listen to suppliers and customers, it creates a collaboration capable of optimizing opportunities. In short, keep your eyes and your ears open to whatever changes may occur in your environment. And be prepared to pivot, if necessary. Admittedly, most of us prefer to hear good things rather than bad. But the occasional valley does lead to a peak. Darkest before dawn, into every life a little rain must fall… you get the idea. And generally speaking, we like to hear the truth. Even if it hurts. That’s how we grow, and how we truly attain – maybe not “the perfect”, but certainly The Real – Life.
No matter what we’re told by society or social media or television or movies, etc., that we’re supposed to aspire to and become, remember one simple truth: you are your own algorithm. TPL-wise, many of us feel we know what The Perfect Life is. Do we tough it out? Or have we simply been influenced into believing what we’ve been told The Perfect Life is? Only you, and your hairdresser, know for sure.
Peter Campbell | Contributing Writer
