Business Thoughts, Favorite Quotes, Rants and Observations

first class ticket through life

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“There are very few products which do not benefit from being given a first class ticket through life.”

—

David Ogilvy

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“When one loves, one does not calculate.”

―

Thérèse de Lisieux

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One of the most consistent business discussions I seem to have with marketing people is tone of messaging … or how to frame the product or service or business in the marketplace.

With all the books & processes cramming differentiation down every marketer’s throat most businesses invest gobs of energy identifying either what makes them distinct or different.

At the end of that road they are tired … and then have to figure out how to tell everyone.

This is where we start calculating the ones we love.

The ‘one’ being the business, product and/or service. We have lovingly crafted everything about it and now we begin calculating how to communicate it.

The calculation simplistically drives most people to gravitate to one of two places – humor or humorless.

Now.

To be honest.

I am not a big ‘use humor in communications’ person. More often than not humor is either misused <someone has decided ‘breaking thru the clutter’ matters more than actual substance> or it is off-putting <crass humor to make a point> or it is simply forced. That doesn’t mean I won’t, and have not, use humor in communications and marketing … but it tends to be ‘smart humor’ and not slapstick or silly.

And there is a reason for that beyond the overall humor ‘misused’ thought.

I believe people deserve a first class ticket in Life.

And, frankly, I believe most businesses offer products & services that deserve a first class ticket through Life.

First and foremost I believe a business should treat their own product & service, and business, with respect and dignity and … well … at least an aspect of seriousness as a reflection of the seriousness the business itself put forth in coming up with the idea.

Most businesses are neither flippant nor not thought out. This doesn’t mean you cannot laugh at yourself nor offer who and what you are with some character and humility … but rarely do I want to suggest I didn’t do some first class thinking in building what I hope is a first class offering.

In the parallel world … the one in which the people reside who will actually buy or use this product or service … well … these people want to be treated with respect, respect for them, their heads, their hearts & their wallets.

All of this sounds practical. All of this most likely resonates with business people … then why does it all go out the window with some slapstick wacky creative structure in communicating the message?

Look.

No.

As a business I don’t want to take myself too seriously.

But I need to weigh the fact that I have a serious business offering developed thru some serious thoughtful business acumen.

The problem mostly lies in the fact that after beating the crap out of your business positioning to uncover the strong core to offer … a business fears it isn’t interesting enough or distinct enough.

Then they fall prey to the ‘to break thru you need to do something different’ advice.

I have this discussion so many times with businesses I have honed the discussion platform into two basic starting points:

Try and view it all with a fresh eye

I typically suggest that a business always try and look at the world with new eyes … view the things they have maybe looked at a zillion times … so many times that the things are just things. I suggest that because people want to see a world through new eyes.

Some people call this the sea of sameness. I do not. I believe there is a lot of good shit and good things out there … but we have seen them … and derivatives of them day in and day out <and this includes “breakthroughs & NEW”> that our eyes, ears and hearts view without viewing.

Nothing … and I mean NOTHING … is more impactful to someone than seeing something they have seen a zillion times in a new way. It taps into a sense of wonder … I wonder why I never saw that before, wonder what I was doing in the past that made me not see that and … well … I wonder if I will ever view this thing the same ever again in the future.

Think vivid

When I was at J. Walter Thompson years ago the basic premise behind crafting recognizable and relevant ideas was about “vivid” – vivid metaphors or vivid demonstrations in communicating the product idea.

Some businesses have something that makes them uniquely demonstrable. Superiority is best communicated, and most simply communicated, through communicating performance. Sound dull? Only if you don’t truly offer superiority and the demonstration isn’t vivid.

Some businesses rely on a vivid metaphor where an actual demonstration fails to be either distinctive or effective. Great literature bursts with metaphors … for commonplace things we often take for granted.

Love: “my love is like a red rose.”

The sun: “the sun rose like thunder”

Night: “the dark curtain of night.”

The metaphor can make the commonplace exceptional and interesting.

Regardless of which vivid path a business pursues it should evoke something – surprise, synergy, sympathy, simplicity or shivers.

Day in and day out I stick to my guns and this point of view with regard to positioning businesses in the marketplace. Maintain the high road <because people like to get better than maybe what they expect> and think ‘vivid.’

If you pursue this kind of thinking as you frame your business, product or service … well … you actually limit your risk <that is also part of pursuing a ‘first class ticket’ philosophy>.

I found it interesting when I googled “first class life” and I found that First Class Life is a categorical term present in the classification of life insurance risk. It denotes low life risk.

Definition: First Class Life is a categorical term present in the classification of life insurance risk. It denotes low life risk.

Description: First class life comes under low risk category of life insurance and thus is charged normal premium charges. An individual identified as first class life is subject to normal premium rates for an insurance policy.

All business contains risk … it is inherent in everything you do.

Therefore in building your business you should be seeking to mitigate risks <so you can take the ‘smart risks’>.

Tone in communications shouldn’t be about risk.

But.

Let me be clear on this … a business should always seek to craft a message so that it is loved by some and disliked by others <that shows you have made some choices> but that message should always <always> be framed in a way that makes the people who love you feel like they just got a first class ticket through Life <and even the ones who hate you will most likely respect you in some way>.

You know … reading back over what I just wrote … this seems simple. If you are running a business and you have lovingly crafted some product or service you really believe in … well … why wouldn’t you buy it a first class ticket into the marketplace?

I call it “selling up.” I don’t want to undersell my idea, my business, my people … or my potential customers. I want them to feel like they part of something that brings Life ‘up’ … and not down. Seems like everyone would want to do that.

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April 6, 2016 by Bruce

Written by Bruce

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