I’m finishing up the book The Deviant’s Advantage, by Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker … subtitle; How to use Fringe Ideas to Create Mass Markets (Deviance meaning distance from the norm, not “a bizarre and twisted sociopath.”) Their premise is that ALL innovation goes through a predictable evolution of phases.

Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of the path:

• The Fringe …€” All new, bold, innovative ideas start out as a passion in the heart of a single individual. At this point there’s no audience, let alone a market for the idea.
• The Edge …€” Next, a very small number of people (typically different than those on the fringe) will adopt it and start to spread the idea (which they call the devox … the voice of the deviant)
• The Realm of the Cool …€” As the audience grows larger, the very early adopters will take hold of the idea. As the devox starts to move from the Edge to the Realm of the Cool, it starts to have market value.
• The Next Big Thing …€” This is where innovative ideas start to take off. Think Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point, or Seth Godin’s Idea Virus. Most marketers and business owners seek to have their products and services make it to this level of success. But there’s much more …
• Social Convention …€” The innovation makes it to the mass market …€” through the early adpoters and on through the early and late majorities (a la Everett Rogers)

At this point, the ideas can take a path through one or more alternative phases. Let’s use Elvis Presley as an example to show you these next possible steps.

Certainly The King was an innovator. His hip gyrations moved him from the Fringe into the Edge. Radio exposure and teen fans moved him into the Realm of the Cool (think of all those screaming girls in his 1950’s audiences). Then came the Ed Sullivan Show moving him on to Social Convention (think of the size of the audiences and his record sales in the 60’s).

After all of the above happens, here are the next possible steps. Elvis is found in three out of four;

• Cliche …€” When you think of Las Vegas impersonators … yep, you think of Elvis. There are now LOTS of Elvis ideas that have become cliche; big side burns, peanut butter and ‘nana sandwiches, big-coller glitter jump suits, and on and on.
• Icon …€” Although many parts of the “Elvis Idea” have become satirized and have fallen into cliche, he certainly is seen as a music industry icon.
• Archetype …€” Watts and Wacker give a fabulous 5 point list of what defines an archetype. Look for this in a future post, or better yet, read the book. Suffice it to say, Elvis IS The King of Rock and Roll.
• Oblivion …€” Not yet into oblivion, but give it another generation (or two) and the passion for the King will likely die down. Think about the number of Rudolph Valentino fan clubs that are left in the world.

So, what does this mean to you? Your products, your services, your entire industry, your ideas are all on the above path …€“ like it or not. Are you managing their growth or are you just hoping things work out.

Having an awareness of this evolution process can be both motivating and enlightening. Realizing your industry is passing into oblivion may help you adjust your career path so you don’t go down with a sinking ship. Realizing that you might be actually watching an idea move from the Fringe to the Edge might allow you to hang on to a screamin’, multi-million dollar ride to the center of Social Convention (think Pet Rocks and Frisbees). Understanding that an idea steeped in Social Convention may provide the opportunity of developing a Cliche product line. This awareness provides endless possibilities. Enjoy the ride!

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I visited the offices of Epiphanies, Inc. this afternoon for a quick 15 minute chat about a client…. Three hours later I find myself back in my office with my head swimming!… Those “big picture”, “big idea” folks tend to do that to you.

In our discussion, we were discussing whether a topic was a “soft topic” or a “hard topic”… and the value of that determination on marketing…. Here’s a sample scenario;

If a marketing consultant creates a low-cost teleseminar on Improving Your Marketing (where one of the topics discussed might be creating a signage campaign), it is, indeed, a soft topic. Is this a bad thing?… Maybe not…. There will certainly be people who will want to hear what an expert has to say and will derive value from the experience…. BUT, what if it was turned into a hard topic? Would the perceived value increase?… We say “yes.”

The teleseminar might become “Top 10 Strategies to Improve Your Marketing”…. In the presentation, the discussion would be “Steps to objectively measure return on investment with a signage campaign.”… Wow, what a difference!

Allen Voivod’s three criteria for determining if something is “hard” are:

• Can you measure dollars (revenue, gross sales, net, etc.) in any way?
• Can you measure a percentage change (increased leads, sales forecasting, etc.)?
• Can you attribute any other objective, measurable number to the idea (widgets sold, web site traffic, etc.)?

This isn’t rocket science but if you look around you (at your marketing, specifically), you might find that you’re implementing A LOT of soft ideas…. Be brutal in your evaluation and change your strategy to MAKE IT HARD! If you can measure it, you can improve upon it and it will have meaning…. If you can’t measure it, it’s essentially worthless.

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Emily Bloss with Excelsior Computer Services, shares this web site with us; www.Oddee.com…. Areas I found interesting were;

• Most Unfortunate Logos Ever (Caution … some of these are pretty risque!)
• 20 Chinese Fake Brands and Copycats

Enjoy…. Thanks Emmy!

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This is one of those “you’ve gotta read it to believe it” things…. The online, discount product site, www.woot.com, posts a single product daily…. Super discounts make it worthy of your attention, BUT, I know I’ll be visiting it daily just to read the copy!… Here’s a snippet (from a post describing a sponge toy for office workers called the USB Missle Launcher):

In mere minutes, even the calmest workplace can turn into a blood-soaked abattoir of human misery, a cut-throat killing field where only the sociopathic and the well-armed will survive. Military experts say the war in Chechnya started when a pudding cup went missing from an office fridge. The USB Missile Launcher might be all that stands between you and total annihilation. Plus, it…€™s lots of fun.

Now THAT’S engaging copy!… Does your marketing copy reek of visual metaphors and quirky, story-like prose? … or does it just reek?

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A new client of ours, Closet Place in Wolfeboro, is winding down their brand strategy development, is hip-deep in web site design (new site to go live in a week or two) and has started some creative marketing pieces…. Their first piece is a coupon where they offer a free report - a Closet Planning Guide…. The recipient would be given a web page address where they can provide their name and email address to get the report for free.

During a phone consultation this morning, we were talking about other creative ideas on how to integrate traditional marketing strategies…. During the conversation, off the cuff, I outlined a series of steps that they could use in a marketing campaign…. Three goals in almost all of their marketing would be to;

• Connect with people directly … after they identify who they want to target
• DON’T sell! … Connect!
• Have the campaign be content oriented

After they stated they wanted to target new home buyers that have recently moved into a new, local housing development, here’s the quickie campaign I outlined :

1. Contact a local contractor who would also like to reach this same target market…. Offer to do the design, production and distribution of a marketing piece if they pay for the printing…. A local window installer would be a good choice here…. A good, low-cost piece would be a “door hanger”.
2. Hire a local teenager to distribute the door hangers on the door knobs of the entire housing development.
3. The copy on the piece will refer to a free offer of the Closet Planning Guide.
4. It will also provide a URL for a landing page that “squeezes” the visitors name and email address.
5. Set up an autoresponder that lets the visitor know right away how to download the Guide.
6. Set up another autoresponder that follows up in two weeks to find out if the person had any questions…. In this same email, give them another freebie report … maybe something like “top 10 closet organization mistakes.”… Tell them when your next tradeshow will be so they can meet you in person…. Maybe provide links to discount coupons.
7. Repeat these steps with similar campaigns but different high-value reports and information. In the next autoresponder, ask if they’d like to sign up for your free e-newsletter.

So, what have we done?… … We’ve created a campaign that is EXTREMELY low cost (less than $300-$400), is content oriented (not salesy), and establishes multiple direct contacts with people who are somewhat interested in what you have to sell…. More importantly, we’ve integrated seven different marketing strategies; door hangers, landing page, special report, auto-responder, tradeshow, coupons, and e-newsletter.

It’s this final step of marketing integration that allows the user to be enticed into a long term relationship where you provide a steady stream of high-value information…. Indeed, they will eventually buy from you OR will have you at the top of their mind when the topic of your services comes up in conversation.

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Morally, there’s no problem with that at all. I used to teach ethics …€” trust me.
…€“ William Bennett, U.S. drug czar (on beheading drug dealers)

Have you ever seen (or worse yet, created) a marketing piece touting how trustworthy the company is?… In this initial contact with the consumer, it’s the worst place to make this claim…. You’ll actually lose credibility!… Like with Mr. Bennett, just because you say it, doesn’t make it true or believable.

Better yet, connect on an emotional level, get the client, establish your trustworthiness and then let the referral and word of mouth marketing process spread this message.

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As I was driving across the State last week I saw, in less than two hours, no fewer than 10 different out-of-state license plates…. [Side comment; Yes, It’s wonderful to live in a place where so many other people come for their vacations!]

Most of these stood out simply because they were different … I hadn’t seen them in a while, if at all…. I then saw a plate that really made me sit up and think about the marketing and brand strategy that goes into a State’s license plate design. If you consider how important travel and tourism is to most states, this can be a HUGE fiscal issue directly tied to a brand effort.
Each state has vanity plates and commemorative plates and special occasion plates and veteran plates and handicapped plates, etc., etc…. For the sake of this post, I’m only going to focus on the default plate design …€” the one people will see the most. After a little online research, here’s my assessment…. Let’s start from the bottom up.

MOST BORING: Some State’s just don’t get it. There are 10-15 plates that fall into this category but I’d have to give the nod to my home State of Michigan…. Yawn.

WELL BRANDED: The largest category is of States who have thought about their own brand and identity and are graphically conveying who they are…. Some good examples are Georgia (the peach) and Colorado (the Rocky Mountains). A few states have even turned their plates into artistic masterpieces…. Mississippi, for example, has a beautiful presentation.

GREAT MARKETING:… Only two States, that I could find, have taken their plate design into the world of integrated marketing…. By creating web sites and then taking the opportunity of tens of millions of “plate views” daily, Pennsylvania and Florida win the prize for best marketers…. Interestingly, Pennsylvania has apparently scrapped their old “keystone” graphic from days gone by, sacrificing the brand element for a simpler design and the use of a generic government URL.

THE WINNER: Because of it’s design simplicity, brand ties to the orange producing industry and an integrated marketing initiative …€“ driving traffic to a great domain like “MyFlorida.com” …€“ the grand prize goes to Florida!!

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