Levis and the long view

I woke up this morning thinking about Levis.

More specifically, I woke up thinking about how I wanted to put on a pair of really comfortable jeans and Levis were the brand I thought of first.

I actually don’t think I’ve worn a pair of Levis in a couple of decades, and yet that was the brand that popped into my mind. That was the brand that my mind associated with comfortable jeans.

We could take away from this little trip inside my mind that my thoughts are all over the place, but I’d rather take away an insight about the power of the long view. The long view means that we measure success in weeks, months, and years more than seconds, minutes, and hours.

Advertisers and brands take the long view. They pay a lot of money to plant a thought in our minds now that may not bloom for months or even years. They do this because they understand the cumulative effect of marketing: what we see and hear repeatedly over time will become what we think about repeatedly over time which turns into what we’ll do repeatedly over time.

“I’m a Ford man,” isn’t necessarily a statement about vehicle quality or brand loyalty as much as it is about marketing success. That Ford man probably grew up in a family of Ford men who always talked about how great Fords were.

What are you investing in right now? Take the long view as you wait for the return.

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