I was listening as an educated gentleman explained that contrary to popular opinion, ignorance isn’t bliss. Quite so. Tens of millions today are ignorant of the facts about contemporary manufactured housing and its appealing, green, quality affordable living realities. What is the solution?
We don’t know what we don’t know. This is true of us and others.
Let’s use a little common sense today that can point the way to MH growth, shall we? We begin with a proper understanding of 3 terms and how they apply to our industry’s situation, starting with the word “ignorance.”
Google rendered this definition of ignorance:
ig·no·rance
ˈiɡnərəns/
noun
1. lack of knowledge or information.
“he acted in ignorance of basic procedures”
2. synonyms: incomprehension of, unawareness of, unconsciousness of, unfamiliarity with, inexperience with, lack of knowledge about, lack of information about.
Ignorance is not a crime. Nor is it an insult to be ignorant about a subject. The fact is that we are all ignorant about many things. To be ignorant means to be uniformed about a thing. The vast majority of people are ignorant of the realities of manufactured housing today.
We won’t use vincible and invincible ignorance in the same sense that medieval moral theologians, such as the brilliant St. Thomas Aquinas would have done. Instead, what we will use is a strict rendering of the term. To be vincible, means one can ‘vanquish’ or ‘conquer’ something. To be invincible means the opposite, it can’t be conquered.
Google defined invincible ignorance this way.
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The invincible ignorance fallacy is a deductive fallacy of circularity where the person in question simply refuses to believe the argument, ignoring any evidence given. (Italics added for emphasis.)
Some people will simply refuse to be moved by reality, even if it is demonstrated to them. “Don’t bother me with the facts, my mind is made up!” summarizes that sort of approach taken by some. We won’t spend time today on how to unlock such a mind, rather, we should focus our energy on those millions who are open to whatever the truth of a subject reveals.
Vincible ignorance is a form of ignorance that can be overcome by education or information. When someone is willing to learn, they fall into this category. This group includes those seeking a solution to a problem. With incomes down, and housing costs rising, there are plenty of people seeking an answer that we happen to have to their housing and budget needs.
Manufactured housing is an amazing product that fills the basic necessity of shelter. Some want or can afford only the utterly most essential form of shelter. That’s an important market one that MH serves better than almost any one else can claim to do.
Others who have more means may want and have the ability to go behind the basics of shade from the elements. This second audience is arguably far larger in the U.S.. If we want to grow our industry past its current low levels, we must expand our reach into current and larger groups we can serve.
We do this by overcoming vincible ignorance. We do this through information, education and creating compelling and appealing messages.
Different Strokes for Different Folks
While no two people are alike, there are basic personality types that we tend to fall into. So no one message will appeal to everyone. Some will find this blog post more appealing than others. What this means is that in the ideal, you don’t do a one size fits all message, you use multiple forms of messaging until you find the best combination for the widest possible audiences.
That’s a function of marketing, or to rephrase, story telling.
Want to grow our industry? We must include outreaches to those who might be ignorant of MH at present, would be good prospects for our homes and are willing to learn the modern realities when properly approached. Because there are different personality types, as noted, this means you need a variety of messages, types and styles.
We will look at this more in the days ahead. But for now, let me suggest two pairs of two points.
- Education must be:
a) internal to our industry’s members as well as
b) external to our target audiences.
- Many different forms of information or ‘story telling’ ought to be used.
a) Video is one of those, and
b) by using video interviews with a wide variety of personalities, we will over time build up a library of stories with talking points that will resonate with the industry pro and the public at large.
The slow ‘death’ of TV could be creating a significant opportunity for MH. See this weekend’s Cutting Edge Blog post on powerful ways to overcome ignorance.
New topic, mid week. Please check back, thank you. ##
