Vanessa has a brilliant post on the challenge for a marketer. Take a look:
...we, as inventors and marketers, are not alone - most new ideas and products are met with skepticism, met with a resistance to accept and adopt. People are reluctant to change their lifestyle, their patterns, their routines. Or as Seth Godin puts it, unwilling to change their "worldview".
"The horseless carriage is just a fad!"
"A washing machine?! People today are just lazy!"
"What's wrong with 8-track?!"
"The internet?! Who's going to use that?!"
"E-mail, Schmee-mail! I'll send my letters the old-fashioned way, thank you!"
A German philosopher, by the name of Arthur Schopenhauer, once said,
"All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Any inventor, scientist, ideasmith, or marketer can relate to that! But it's those of us - who persevere, who believe in our idea, who are willing to be ridiculed, who are willing to face questions and disbelief - that will see it through until the change and shift is made and our idea is accepted as obvious.