ETF WTF?
Educated incapacity leads to confused customers
We recently attended a conference where one of the speakers suggested that marketers need to actively acknowledge and address “educated incapacity.” She defined educated incapacity as knowing so much about a product or service that you simply can’t see it any other way, holding you back from understanding it from the consumer point-of-view.
I was reflecting on this when I was reviewing a very technical piece of copy about ETFs, a.k.a. Exchange Traded Funds. ETFs are getting a lot of media attention right now and most financial institutions are offering them as investment solutions. Pick up any mainstream mass affluent publication and you’ll see the acronym “ETF” all over the place – typically without explanation of the product or its benefits. That’s a sign of a whole industry suffering from educated incapacity.
Are you suffering from “EI” too? Whether your industry is financial, automotive or healthcare, I dare you to pull out some of the most used terminology from your area of expertise and strike up a conversation with a friend from the general population. Ask them to explain back to you what you’re talking about. That glazed look that comes over his or her face is a signal that you’re missing the point of view it takes to differentiate your brand, add value, and solve the problems of today’s consumer.