GOT A GENIUS MESSAGE?

GOT GUTS?

FEARLESS MARKETING is not about thumping your chest or flailing your fists wildly about before even stepping into the ring, the key, the batter’s box, or up to the tee, the net, or line of scrimmage.

Neither is it even about performing these kinds of antics after knocking down an opponent, making a slam-dunk, hitting an extra-base hit, sinking a putt, forcing a bad serve, or rushing for a first and goal. Sorry, truth is that you’re NOT Spiderman or Wonderwoman!

Being FEARLESS doesn’t mean being insane! It’s about stepping up and out as uniquely, as wisely yet brashly, and as customer-consciously as possible.

In the mid-late 60s, a creative marketing genius named Tony Isadore –then with the great Madison Avenue advertising agency, Young & Rubicam–came up with what was, at that time, unheard-of, earth-shattering language to headline an all-out media (TV, radio, print ads and transit signs) campaign to raise donations for The New York Urban Coalition, The message: “GIVE A DAMN.”

Risky business for those involved. Many thought the use of “DAMN” would be putting careers on the line. Yet the word happened. And because it was deemed by the public as appropriate for the purpose, it became a resounding success.

There is a time and place for everything, but the trick in FEARLESS MARKETING is to be that one step ahead, to anticipate what will work and how far to go in making it work. This is not to suggest ferreting through lists of prospective curse words to throw into your marketing and branding programs.

It is simply to make the point that when we look just far enough into the immediate future, with the right eyes (!), at the right market, we can almost predict an unusual word choice that will “click” with prospects. “GOT MILK?” and “DO IT!” and “IT’S IN YOU” and “LOVIN’ IT” and “THE REAL THING” all come to mind as two or three-word, double entendre messages that have made colossal sales.

And it’s hard to beat the great social media names (GOOGLE, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn) that are in themselves, sales messages, and have even gained acceptance as verbs!

But, ah, be aware that none of these (or I’d venture to guess that any great, short, FEARLESS MARKETING messages) EVER just popped out of someone’s back pocket. Marketing messages that step up and out, that make a difference, that work, typically require re-working, revising, re-thinking, re-writing hundreds if not dozens of attempts, over considerable periods of sleep-on-it time.

So if you’re paying someone to produce the winning combination of words, be patient. Great branding never happened overnight, and if you can think of exceptions . . . you’re going to be wrong 99% of the time! If you think you can produce the perfect words yourself, become a copywriter . . . but don’t give up your day job!

FEARLESS MARKETING is not just the creation of a message. It’s also having the savvy and guts that underscore the message of FEARLESS! (the stage musical), which, applied here, translates to: If the risk involved is reasonable, run the DAMN marketing. FEARLESS MARKETING ignites FEARLESS SALES!

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Hal@Businessworks.US               931.854.0474

OPEN  MINDS  OPEN  DOORS

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Overkill business efforts breed failure . . .

LIKE GREAT MARKETING,

GREAT LEADERSHIP

 DOESN’T TRY FOR A 

HOME RUN EVERY AT-BAT

The best creative marketing talent, plans, and campaigns — and the world’s greatest leaders — are born and inspired not by blood, sweat, tears, and insanely long hours, but by focus.

By adjusting the camera or rifle lens, the stage spotlights, the binoculars, the telescope, the magnifying glass, the microscope, and computerized zoom controls, we increase our visual focus for a moment, a few moments, maybe a few hours.

We do the same by adjusting volume, speaker, bass and treble, balance and other media controls to focus our hearing.

Ongoing mental focus, such as that which is evident in literally every leadership or creative marketing performance, is driven by adjusting and channeling powers of concentration.

It is not the product of (pay attention exam-cramming students!) working deliriously through the night, night after night.

Neither is it the product of entertaining others with razzmatazz and razzle-dazzle. (My father used to say, “Don’t give me a song and dance routine; just answer the question!” My father would have made a good Judge Judy.)

Most assuredly, great leadership and great marketing are not the results of political smoke and mirror acts that we see routinely practiced in virtually every local, state, and (especially) federal government-based and corporate giant-based entity in existence. 

Having a true focus means we can “see” and are aware of the actions and influences on the periphery of our focus targets, but that our minds are keenly tuned to the point of what we’re aiming for.

That demands concentration, but it is not necessarily “hard work.” It is what you choose it to be. And ease comes with practice.

Practice? Like what?

• You’re in New York City? Go sit in the middle of Grand Central Station at rush hour and write a three-page essay about your own leadership challenges and abilities.
• You’re in Delaware? Go sit in the middle of a 1,000-chicken chicken coop and read and digest and summarize two articles on industry issues that affect your business. (No ear plugs allowed. Oh, and I hope you like feathers!)
• You’re in Chicago? 1) Get as close as you legally can to O’Hare Airport (Car windows open! Chilly, huh? Dress warm. Bring coffee.) 2) Read and answer three days’ worth of emails on your plugged-in laptop.
• You’re in San Francisco? (What are you doing there?) Hop on the trolley to Fisherman’s Wharf at lunchtime and –while on the trolley– write (yes, with pen and paper) your own obituary (Now THAT’s an exercise that takes concentration!)
• You’re in Hawaii? Well, we all know about those cliffs over the ocean, and waterfalls, and . . . okay, you’re not reading this anyway. Aloha to you too!  

You get the idea. Challenge yourself (and remember to breathe)

Here’s the bottom line: Wherever you are, if you’re serious about wanting to radically improve your leadership and creative marketing skills, spend more energy learning how to concentrate and focus.

Uh, you DO remember The Karate Kid movies? Well, pay more attention to yourself and stop trying so hard. Working yourself into a frenzy with busyness that you think impresses others, doesn’t. All it does is blockade others by making you inaccessible to them.

If you’re actually trying to be inaccessible, you are not leader material, you will never be a creative marketing star, and you are probably best suited to run for political office or work in some government or corporate-giant dungeon for thirty years.

Hey, it’s your life! (And odds are pretty good that it will only happen once!) Do you really want to make a difference?

~~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!