Greg Stielstra (PyroMarketing) has post today called Sell Out to Your Niche.

It’s a good post touching on a couple of the themes from his book PyroMarketing.  He says that people are afraid to try it because it requires narrowly focusing on their niche…at the expense of other “prospects.”  He says that, “they mistakenly believe that a product with a less specific appeal will attract more general interest.”

This is nothing new or earth-shattering.  Businesses are scared of doing the difficult chore of focusing on their best customers because they feel that not catering to everyone is leaving business on the table.  The opposite is usually true, but I understand where the fear comes from.

Then, Greg goes on to say something that I read and re-read and it really hit home.  He says that companies will say, “If we can make that women’s book less feminine, then it will appeal to men.”  The point that drives it home for me is his summary of that thinking where he says, “If you want men, make your product masculine, not less feminine.”

Exactly.

When has doing something a little bit less ever made a product/business/person successful?  This, to me is what cost John Kerry the election in ’04.  Regardless of your political preferences, you have to admit that the bulk of his platform was that he was the “Anti-George Bush.”  Basically, he said that if you don’t like George Bush, vote Kerry.  Not because of his qualifications, or what he is doing, but because he’s not Bush.

In a business that is wholly driven by emotion, saying that you’re not as much of something as the competition will never get you anywhere.

Technorati Tags: marketing, blogging, Greg Stielstra, PyroMarketing, dilution

powered by performancing firefox

Ok, so this really isn’t about bad movies…but it could be.

While I didn’t often agree with the political views of the show, I LOVED the TV show “The West Wing.”  I thought the writing was superb, the camera work was engaging and the actors played their parts to perfection.

What has me thinking is one specific segment from the second episode of Season 2.  For those of you that haven’t seen the show, I’ll give you a quick overview.  At the end of Season 1, shots are fired at the President and top aides as they leave a town hall meeting.  We find out in the first episode of Season 2 that the Deputy Chief of Staff, Josh Lyman (played by Bradley Whitford who is now on Studio 60…another show you should watch!) was hit by one of the bullets and is rushed into immediate surgery to repair various internal injuries including a collapsed lung.

That episode and the one that follows is then a series of story lines following the current story and numerous flashbacks to how each of the main characters came to be involved with the campaign and subsequent Presidential administration.

Ok, so that was the long way ’round to get to the part that I’ve been mulling over.

In that second episode, there is a segment that shows how the Press Secretary, C.J. Cregg (played wonderfully by Allison Janney) came to join the campaign.  As the clip starts, she is called into her office at a major PR firm to meet with the company’s president and an important client who is a movie producer or director.  He is upset that he is paying them for PR for his movies and they only received 2 Golden Globe nominations.

It is then that C.J. (Janney) explains the lack of success and sums up PR and Marketing in a short sentence.  She says, “They were bad movies.  If they were unknown, I could help you, but they weren’t.  The movies were bad.”

She continues on, and eventually gets fired, but to me, the sentiment of the constant struggle by PR and Marketing folks is summed up right there.  Often, after marketing and PR efforts don’t bring about the desired results, the “powers that be” blame the marketing, blame the PR.  They assume that if we, the “spinsters” had done our job better, they’d be getting the results/business they desired. 

That’s not always the problem.

Sometimes, it might just be that “they were bad movies.” 

We can promote/market until we’re blue in the face, but if what we’re promoting or marketing isn’t good…nay, isn’t GREAT, no one will care.  Dare I say, if it’s not a Purple Cow, people won’t notice.  Or, if they do notice, they will most likely be indifferent.

Contrarily, if the product/service/idea is great, or is worth knowing about, even small FAILURES at PR or marketing will most likely succeed because the strength of the offering will entice people to talk.  I know this topic has been done to death, but the message still hasn’t gotten through to far too many people.

So, let’s stop promoting “bad movies” and start creating things worth promoting. 

powered by performancing firefox

Chris Clark over at Student PR blogs today about the fact that Second Life Fails.

Basically, he says that it fails because of a lack of authenticity.

While this may be true for some people, I think it’s the exact opposite for many. I think that the “cloak of anonymity” can often help people become more authentic because they know that they are protected from judgment and ridicule of the person they’re talking to.

Sure, some people use that “cloak” to misrepresent themselves…but you’ll have that anywhere. I think that just as many, if not more people use the buffer of Second Life to talk to people they’d never be able to talk to about opinions they may not otherwise share. I think Second Life gives people the opportunity to connect with people that they may not be able to in any other way…be it due to lack of confidence or lack of physical proximity.

I greatly respect Chris.

I think he’s very intelligent and listening to him I know he’s going to do great things. While I’m a few years older than him, I know I can learn a lot from him.

But, I think he’s a bit off track here because he seems to be dismissing something, a new communications tool, for a reason that I think can go either way.

One thing he does say that I completely agree with is that “big brands being in SL doesn’t validate the space.” Very true. The people, the connections, the communities and the friendships that are formed validate the space. No matter how many brands enter SL, it comes back to the Cluetrain way of thinking that markets are conversations. SL is just another way to foster those conversations.

powered by performancing firefox