first look at gapingvoid.com

in gapingvoid.com so what’s a crazy-ass cartoonist in alpine, texas going to do about dell, anyway? November 15, 2008

the only innovations worth making are the ones involving product ideas and product design.

You can't thrill your customers until you thrill yourself first.

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in gapingvoid.com marketing as transformation November 21, 2008

your product has to be aligned with your customer's never-ending search to find meaning in his or her own life.

If people like buying your product, it's because its story helps fill in the narrative gaps in their own lives.

Human beings need to tell stories. Historically, it's the quickest way we have for transmitting useful information to other members of our species. Stories are not just nice things to have, they are essential survival tools.

And yes, the stories we tell ourselves are just as important than the stories we tell other people.

Ergo, marketing is not about selling. Marketing is figuring out where your product stands in relation to personal narrative.

So where does your product fit into other people's narrative? How does telling your story become a survival tool for other people? If you don't know, you have a marketing problem.

Narrative gaps. It's all about the narrative gaps.

We find meaning, we fill in the narrative gaps, when we transform ourselves. When we transform from unemployed single mother to world's richest woman [Like what happened to Harry Potter's JK Rowling]. When we go from a size-12 dress to a size-6 dress. When we land our first real job promotion. When we go from single horny guy to happily married father of six. This need to constantly transform ourselves, from one state of being to another, never goes away. We are fluid creatures. We crave re-invention like we crave food or sex. And when we lose the capacity to transform ourselves, when we get stuck in a rut, is when life's meaning starts to dry up.

The people who inspire us the most are the people who aim higher than the limitations imposed upon them. Triumph over adversity; it's the oldest story in the world.