Waking up from your Marketing Dream
5/19/2011 12:35:58 PM
Have you had one of the five most common dreams lately?
Sigmund Freud made a name for himself interpreting dreams. Long before Freud
had a conflict between his Id and Superego, people have been trying to find
some kind of meaning from the messages they get while they sleep. For the sake
of our topic, I would like to try a new twist at dream interpreting the five
most common dreams and how they relate to your marketing plans. Your
subconscious mind is trying to tell you something as you slumber. Today, I am
here to solve the mystery.
1. Falling:
Over the years, dream theorists have suggested that this dream is caused
by a circumstance that is out of your control. You are struggling with an
insurmountable task and it has gone awry. This comes pretty close, but my
marketing slant is that this is because you don’t have a strategic
marketing plan… at least one that is working for you. You need sales, but
lack the tools necessary to get the job done. And if you hit the ground in
your dream, your company will either go bankrupt or be taken over by the
federal government (although I think they are the same thing.)
2. Forgot
to get dressed and went to work: The dream always starts with you going
into a familiar place and taking off your coat, only to find that you have
forgotten to put any clothes on under the coat. The dream ends with you
trying to hide while people suddenly discover your nudity and begin to
point, laugh and call other people to gather around you for a look. Does
this have to do with our insecurities? No, it has to do with people who
post too much information about themselves and what they think of everyone
in the company on Facebook. One step further would be the person who posts
it all on the company FB site and over exposes their opinions to the
world.
3. Going
back to school having not studied for a final exam: In this dream, you
find yourself back in the classroom taking a test, but you have failed to
study for the test and the answers just won’t come to mind. You flunk the
test and are held back while your classmates move on to greater things.
Does this dream mean that you are unprepared for what is coming ahead of
you? No, it just means that you need to take a closer look at your
competition. What are they doing that works that you aren’t doing? You may
need to change your marketing methods if this is your dream.
4. Being
chased: Whenever I have this dream, it seems like it is a large bear that
is chasing me. Sometimes it is lion. In any case, the animal always gets
really close – so close I can feel it’s breath on the back of my neck –
right before I wake up. Is this your worst fear trying to catch up with
you? No, it is just a reminder that you can never quit marketing in
business. If you do, you will get eaten by the competition.
5. Teeth
falling out: No matter how you try, in this dream you cannot keep your
teeth in your head. Every time you open your mouth to speak, eat or yawn,
more of your pearly whites just tumble out of your mouth. This is a warning
that you have to be careful with your marketing communications. If you
misspeak on your marketing materials, it can come back to haunt you. If
you put wrong information on your web site, someone will site it in an
article about your company. Company communication is vast, but in this
day, information hangs around forever. You cannot be too careful with what
you are putting on your web site, brochures, ads and even your tweets.
Keep
one eye open tonight. You might just learn something about your marketing
efforts as you dream.
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Photo by Scott Griessel