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An ad agency in Connecticut has an antique cannon in their lobby. Mounted on the cannon is a sign which reads: Ready, Fire, Aim!
Anyone who has worked in advertising knows exactly what that’s about. It refers to one of the most common marketing mistakes companies make—the failure to think things through before pulling the trigger on an advertising idea. Read more…
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One of the best marketing lessons I’ve received came from a salesperson in a luggage store. Here’s the story.
Years ago, when I lived in New York City, I happened to be doing a lot of traveling and needed new luggage. I visited several stores, then walked into a luggage store on 5th Avenue. A man greeted me and asked, “Do you have any questions or would you just like to look on your own?”
It was a simple question, but a good one. Usually, salespeople either hover over you when you don’t need them, or they aren’t around when you do need them. This guy resolved that little dilemma with a simple question.
Read more…
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I was talking with a marketing executive at Intuit, the maker of Quicken, QuickBooks and TurboTax, and I asked her, “If you could change one thing about your marketing team, what would you change?” Read more…
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Looking for more sales? You might start by looking in the wastebasket.
That was the case with a popular cruise line. They had created a beautiful, expensive, elaborate cruise kit brochure and offered it free in their magazine ads. Thousands of people requested the brochure and Read more…
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We all know about the kind of education that tuition provides.
But if you’re looking for better ways to market your product or service, you also need the kind of education that intuition provides.
Fortunately, educating yourself for intuition doesn’t have to cost a penny. In fact, you already have intuition. The only question is, how can you sharpen the intuition you have? This is an important question because…
…The sharper your intuition, the better you’ll be able to figure out the right marketing moves to make for your business.
…The sharper your intuition, the better you’ll be at brainstorming new ideas for selling your product or service.
…The sharper your intuition, the better you’ll be at spotting strengths and weaknesses in your advertising and marketing materials.
A Process for Finding New Ideas
Famed filmmaker Ingmar Bergman puts it like this: “You must train your intuition—you must trust that small voice inside you…Your intuition is your instrument…I throw a spear into the dark. That is my intuition, and then I have to send an expedition into the jungle to find the spear and find the way to the spear. That is a different process. That is my intellect.”
That may sound a bit mysterious, but Bergman is pointing to a practical three-step process for finding and developing new ideas:
Then, as you think about your advertising idea, give yourself a gut check: “Is this the best way to go? Is there a completely different, better way to do it? If I were in the customer’s shoes, would I believe this? Would I be interested? Would I be convinced? Why or why not? What would it take to stop me in my tracks?”
To follow your intuition, you must be willing to occasionally put up with the discomfort of being out on a limb with a new idea. I like the way actor Alan Alda puts it: “You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing.”
And playwright Neil Simon says this about the importance of taking risks in work: “Don’t listen to those who say, ‘It’s not done that way.’ Maybe it’s not, but maybe you will. Don’t listen to those who say, ‘You’re taking too big a chance.’ Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out today.”
Stephen Hawking, the world renowned astrophysicist, says, “There is no prescribed route to follow to arrive at a new idea. You have to make the intuitive leap…and then fill in the intermediate steps.”
Those intermediate steps are where you fight for the new idea and work relentlessly to make the idea work in the real world.
Thinking Like a Customer
Finally, the whetstone against which you sharpen the spear of your intuition is your effort to think like a customer. The more you try to get inside the customer’s skin and see your business through the customer’s eyes, the sharper your intuition will be.
Mitch Kapor originally developed the famous Lotus 1-2-3 software as an assignment for a course at MIT’s Sloan School of Business. He got a B on it, rather than an A, in part because he didn’t include any statistical market surveys in his work. Instead, he talked to people, got a sense for what they were looking for, looked at customer attitudes. And, based on his intuition, he developed one of the most successful software packages.
Intuition is one of the most powerful weapons available to help you make your best marketing moves. Maybe part of the answer to the high cost of tuition is to put more emphasis on educating and sharpening our intuition!
To your success and enjoyment,
Geoffery
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