A Privilege
After reading through the book summary of Relentless in Marketing Gurus
When you consider marketing to your customers a privilege, everything changes.
The book, as best I can tell, focuses on the differences between Western marketing and Japanese marketing, whereas Western marketing relies on research and testing, while Japanese marketing relies on intuition and customer need. In the mix, the writer explains that the Japanese marketer sees itself as a servant to the consumer, whereas the Western marketer often sees itself as equal. The book is outdated in its example (who’s looking to Japan these days?), but the principles are pretty interesting.
What would happen if you considered your job a privilege? Better put, if you thought of serving your customer as an honor rather than a duty. Even better, if you thought of your product as a means to the customer’s better future rather than a means to your thicker wallet?
When people are looking for ways to genuinely help, everyone wins. Build your business on helping, and remember it’s a privilege that your customers are letting you help them.
Photo credit: Josephine Annika
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Consensus Makes No Sense-us
Watching Jonathan’s video (below and here) sparked a still-brewing thought in my dusty brain:
Consensus is the enemy of progress.
OK, maybe that’s harsh and not always true. But after seeing Jonathan’s response to the HR lady below, you realize that having balls gets you a lot more than having consensus.
Hippos, Recessions and Autopilots: Links Worth Reading
Great reading from the past week:
- Fatigue is a much better teacher than autopilot. Too often we strive for coasting, when it’s actually the worst thing we can do.
- Are Your Eyes Bigger Than Your Budget? The thought-provoker: “For a media mix to be effective, each element in the mix must be substantial enough to establish retention. Too often, people sacrifice repetition for the sake of reach.“
- The Power of 3: How Simple Repetition Aids Memory and Believability. Neuromarketing has become one of my favorite blogs. Information like this is what can stun your execs as you start tossing hardcore data to nix all those “gut feelings” they might be basing important decisions on.
- Recession Proofing Your Job in Internet Communications. What will become of the freelancer as the recession stumbles along? More work, or less work? Ed provides interesting stats and statements that are encouraging for some of us.
- HiPPO - Highest Paid Person’s Opinion. Sad, but true. At least we know there’s a name for it.
- Marketing Lessons from the US Election. Ron sums it up nicely. It was an election where marketing and communication took centerstage.
- Anxiously Waiting for a Book Release. Book release promotions/marketing/whatever is evolving at an extremely rapid pace. Here’s a novel (get it?) way to stay ahead of the curve. And here’s the author’s website. I don’t know if I’ll buy the book in February, but I did subscribe to his blog.
The Vault: Thinking Outside the List
Now that I’ve been blogging for almost two years, I thought I’d start reading through my stuff and remind myself what I actually think! It’s amazing how great a process we go through: our philosphies, our discoveries, our frustrations, our themes. With that in mind, I thought it might be good to revisit some of my favorites once a week, the highlights of what I like to call “The Vault.” Enjoy.
Thinking Outside the List originally appeared on October 5, 2007:
Just being busy doesn’t make you productive.
Just being productive doesn’t make you effective.
Just being effective doesn’t make you successful.
Just being successful doesn’t make you a leader.
Too many people think erroneously somewhere in the midst of the misconceptions listed above. Success requires leadership, but it does not produce leadership. Leadership requires vision, persistence and influence, among other things.
As I ran around like crazy today, trying to wrap one thing up after another, I suddenly realized I was more interested in crossing things off my list than I was producing exceptional products and services. And I almost missed some bigs things because of it.
Crossing things off a list and never straying has never been a celebrated characteristic of a leader.
We all get in “get-it-done” mode. As a marketer, it is sometimes required. But there is no one that should care about producing the exceptional, the remarkable, the unbelievable more than you. And that takes leadership (vision, persistence and influence). Don’t skip that - the people you work with are counting on you to demand excellence, whether they act like it or not.
As a marketer, you must think outside the list.
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The Cocktail Party Rule
The Cocktail Party Rule
This one’s got me thinking; thanks Hugh:
“I call this The Cocktail Party Rule- what’s true at cocktail parties is also true in marketing: “If you want to be boring, talk about yourself. If you want to be interesting, talk about something other than yourself.”
Boldness can sometimes be the clearest sign of insecurity.
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