The #1 problem for all marketers is reaching consumers at the right time and place to get them to believe your marketing messages.

First, today's marketplace is a consumer driven, hyper-competitive GLOBAL arena where consumers can barely tell the difference between offerings, the competition is only a "mouse-click" away, and any number of choices will satisfy the average consumer.

Second, today's cynical consumers are armed with the most sophisticated ad-blocking technologies in history and they have little patience for anyone who might waste their time. Today's consumers are armed with VCRs, DVRs, CDs, DVDs, BlueRay, iTunes, iPods, iPhones, iTouches, do not call, do not mail, spam assassin, pop-up-blockers, banner blockers, cable TV, satellite TV, Internet TV, TiVo, Hulu, YouTube, and the good old remote control. They don't read newspapers and they listen to subscription radio in their cars. And to top it off, tradtional media solutions including TV, radio, and newspapers are facing the greatest challenges in their history.

Third, consumer trust in business is at an all time low.  The headlines of the past decade paint a picture of dishonesty, greed, and fraud on a scale that boggles the mind. Institutions that were once 100+ year-old respected cornerstones of the banking, accounting, mortgage, insurance and investment communities turned out to be nothing more than monuments to greed and hypocrisy.

And finally, the epidemic rise of "social media" has enabled consumers to reach out and touch millions of like minded peers with whatever "chatter" they wish, whenever they wish, 24/7/365. The number of choices is staggering and changing daily, and the rate of change is so much greater than the "rate of response" that companies can realistically mount within the management constraints of an organization, that many companies appear in a daze as to how to react to the accerating growth of "consumer chatter."

So what do you do when the consumers are armed to the teeth with the latest ad-blocking technologies, consumer trust is at a low point, traditional marketing options are struggling and consumers are taking control of the marketing conversations? How do you reach these "ad-blocking, cynical, multi-tasking, chattering" consumers?

According to Jack Trout, marketing super-guru, you create the obvious solution.