Risk-Averse: Marketers Are In Sync With The Culture

Let’s face it: most content looks and sounds the same.

Blogs, ads, books, videos, music, movies, TV shows– you name it.

Marketers and brands have always copied each other, but today, it’s a rare brand that stands out.

Nobody wants to take a chance. Nobody wants to offend.

Which means little or no innovation, because innovation– trying something new– involves risk.

Result: most brands look the same, which makes them invisible, which is the worst possible thing for a brand.

Or is it just me??

Apparently not.

Peggy Noonan writes an opinion column for the Wall Street Journal. Her November 27-28, 2021 column was about risk aversion, and how it’s become a global phenomenon.

Her remarks were inspired by a new study conducted by the Institute for Family Studies, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Wheatley Institution. At several points she quotes Yuval Levin, a director at AEI.

Some excerpts:

The new passivity is global, and further along in parts of Europe and Asia… the waning of “life scripts” provided by family, religion, and traditional norms (means) younger Americans are less sure of where to step and how to build their lives.

We are seeing “a rising generation acutely averse to risk,” and this trend isn’t confined to the young. “Excessive risk aversion” is deforming other areas of American life, from child rearing to work and public leadership.

And it seems intertwined with a general tendency toward inhibition… we see this in speech and conduct codes, which leave Americans “walking on eggshells around each other in many of our major institutions.”

This new ethos “stifles the public arena while denying us recourse to private arenas and tells us how not to behave without showing us how to thrive.” (my emphases)

So it’s not just brands and marketers who are risk-averse and afraid of making mistakes. They mirror the culture around them, opting for “passivity” over action.

Walking on eggshells, hanging back, afraid to take chances.

It’s not a recipe for success.

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About Mark: I’m an illustrator specializing in humor, branding, social media, and content marketing. My images are different, like your brand needs to be.

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