Before you can sell anyone anything you have to first explain to them why their livelihoods nay, their lives depends on having it.

Simple enough, right?

Sometimes it is, but consider this example: If you hadn’t been told since you were a wee tike that cereal is a delicious breakfast staple that will make you grow up big and strong how likely would you have been to try it?

The cereal industry has the answer to this question and it’s found in the explanation as to why they continue to spend hundreds of millions on advertising and marketing campaigns to drive their particular brand of propaganda home to generation after generation of parents.

Speaking of propaganda, let’s turn to a similar example — politics.

The game of politics is a lot closer to selling Frosted Flakes than you might imagine. Talking points and stump speeches are born and bred to use the same mindless repetition of simplistic ideas that has convinced us that the path to Olympic glory can be found at the bottom of a Wheaties box. Entire campaigns can be made or broken based on a candidate’s ability to make their version of the facts stick, and they do it through pandering to our natural inclination to accept oft repeated “facts” as truth.

Not only that, just like your favorite breakfast cereal the real battle is whose points manage to get soggy the slowest.

The distance between building your idea and anyone wanting to buy into it is the information gap and all great products have found their way across it.

Milk builds strong bones, Apple computers are for designers, Nike shoes will make you a better athlete — these are the “facts” that consumers use to make their purchasing decisions, without them products are dull and generic.

As you decide on the look and feel of your product ask yourself what information you are trying to convey. When someone looks at the design, imagery and copy you have created are they getting a clear message, clear bullet points or is it all just soggy corn flakes?

Ask yourself what one thing would make someone register, what one idea would make them buy, what one piece of information do you need to teach them in order for them to realize your product is Grrreeeat. Once you have it, build your marketing machine around this idea and make sure that every sight, sound and texture of your experience validates it.

If you need some inspiration, you need look no further than the cereal aisle.

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