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Meme-It – Make ideas adherent

In the 70s of the last century, we had reached the time for the next level of ‘bits of paper everywhere’. Out of the practical need not to lose bookmarks of his hymnal, Art Fry putted an adhesive on it that could be detached again. This was the birth of a pervasive tool of the information society, the Post-It. Wouldn’t it be great, if there would be similar mechanisms, in order to better anchor ideas in the mind of target groups – a Meme-it that makes ideas adherent.

Meme

In the last century people thought about, how to promote the spreading of ideas. In the Twenties scientists such as Harold D. Lasswell worked on how one could affect human acts through the manipulation of spoken or written language, pictures and music. After all branches exploited the possibilities of PR and marketing as well as new channels are established for conveying contents due to the global networking, viral marketing, sometimes also called guerilla marketing, promises a new, economical approach for the spreading of ideas and concepts. The object that is thereby quasi-automatically spreading across the World Wide Web and the minds of people is called Meme or recently Memeome. Memes are contents that people causally create and think – or how it expresses M. Csikszentmihalyi “any permanent pattern of matter or information produced by an act of human intentionality”. In order to anchor ideas in the consciousness of many people, it is helpful to be aware, how this Meme is composed.

Let’s imagine Meme like a virus that nests in a host cell, multiplies continuously and is transferred to other hosts. The infection is enabled by the structure of the Meme.

Meme consists of three layers, which have on each level a certain function – the contents, the actual idea in the core, the aura that integrates the content into the mental model of each individual and the sphere, which establishes the contact with the environment.

  • Content
    The meme content is the actual meaning that is reduced to minimum. Here the actual statement, i.e. an idea, a topic, a draft, a plan or an established practice, are represented in a compact way. If we describe the core of a knife, then it is a tool for cutting, a sharp thing that splits all possible fabrics or materials.
  • Aura
    The Meme aura extends the content with linked ideas, like e.g. relations to contents, irresistible attractions and other commonalities, which make it easier to dock on existing mental models. Thus, the medical setting offers an associative, emotional and positive framework to look at a knife, or in this context, at a scalpel. That way the Unique Selling Proposition (USP), the special sharpness and the function to save life’s, becomes an interesting thing for many people.
  • Sphere
    The Meme sphere is the meaning context, in which the Meme have an effect and makes contact with the environment. The spreading is favored by this shell, since it is the interface to the environment and to other ideas. Most know a scalpel through personal experience or indirectly by hearsay. The fear of sickness and hope for being healed by surgery creates attention. The example of the scalpel can be traced back up to the times of ancient cultures, which already operated with a sharp artefact.

According to the example of a knife there is in information that we would like to disseminate, content as well as the layers of the aura and the sphere. The conscious arrangement of these layers creates messages that are finding their way, since after a successful infection by the Meme hosts they are spread through word of mouth, publications and repeating implementation.

Bottom line: With Meme-it, you design virulent ideas, topics, scheme, plans and practices in a simple manner. That way your messages are provided with an “adhesive” that on the one hand settles in the mind of the target groups and on the other hand is transmitted. The sales-oriented expenditure for bringing the Meme across the Tipping Point, is substantially smaller, than the classical marketing activity. In this sense, make you your ideas adherent! Meme it!

==> Memefication

==> Meaning design

The Way out of unimaginativeness

It is wrong to believe that everybody must find new things. Ideas alone are not sufficient. They must also be designed, applied and continuously shared. This requires designers, application specialists and communicators. However, without the idea generator there is nothing to convert. Nevertheless many people believe that they should be part of the idea finding. But for some people the white sheet of paper, which has to be filled with the idea, is an insurmountable hurdle. The Way helps out of the unimaginativeness.

Ideenlosigkeit

If you have no idea and you start copying results without thinking, you cannot choose an idea or you complain about not having time to think, then you need a way out of unimaginativeness. For this purpose the next three steps may help.

  • Thinking
    Above anything else it is important that you take time for thinking. You can choose how this works best for you. Some people walk around the block and find thereby their solution. Others browse through books or magazines and pick up a thread. Still others need a sheet of paper, which they fill with sketches and scraps of words that result after several iterations in a consistent structure. No matter how, you have to invest time. Without time nothing else remains for you, than leave yourself to the fate of the unimaginativeness.
  • Developing
    After the idea is there, the real work begins. The individual aspects must now be prepared and reconciled. This step follows seamlessly the first one. Now it is important to research and collect facts and eventually to describe a consistent paper that fits into the desired context. This requires more time than first one. For this reason it is suggested to accomplish these elaborations in a team. Based on the first step, you have sufficient material, in order to distribute the work across several shoulders. In addition you receive additional perspectives that lift the concept over the first hurdles of critics. Also in this step you must accept that you have to invest time.
  • Internalizing
    After the paper is ready, it has to fit into reality. This can only be done, after you internalized it. For this purpose, you read the results and consider how you can apply them. Now, you can go into the first application and identify and adapt the last flaws. If you launch too early in the target areas, the flaws grow exponentially and the draft does not have a fair chance to survive. Also the internalization needs sufficient time, in order to achieve their targets.

If you do not start to follow the path, then you already arrived at the goal – or in other words, no sweet without sweat. Exactly the same happens with the unimaginativeness. If you do not take time, in order to think about the circumstances, to develop and to internalize the concept, you remain without ideas. In this case other capabilities do not help.

Bottom line: Ideas do not fall from the sky, but they are the result of arduous and continuous thinking work. It follows the steps of thinking, developing and internalizing. This way out of the unimaginativeness requires effort and time. Not everybody has to walk through each phase. For you it is only important to find out, which part of the way fits best to you.