春江水暖鸭先知

春江水暖鸭先知 - An old Chinese idiom that in literal sense means "If the waters of the river become warm in the spring, the ducks will be the first to know."

It's essential to draw vital lessons from observations behind that saying. An expert in the field would see where the wind blows and where the tides will change. In this sense, when the river's waters become warm enough to swim and hunt.

In marketing, that means understanding the trends, the changes in consumer behaviour, the patterns that shape how we communicate, convince and influence action. We will need to grow in expertise to be as perceptive as a duck.

We love this story of the duck, which is far better than a similar but severely more harmful idiom in comparison: the "canary in the mine". In that other saying, "if the mine is toxic, the canary will the be first to know (or die from)".

Moral of the story? Be the duck. Not the canary.