One of the biggest obstacles for achieving anything remarkable is the fear of feeling stupid. Nobody wants to feel or appear stupid, and people do anything they can to avoid it. So, it stops people from doing something worthwhile achieving, killing an idea that could otherwise produce great outcome.
The problem is, nobody knows which idea will work, and trying to speculate the end result seems too risky.
For this reason, most organizations stall. They stall and allow others to first experiment the unknown. They want others to take risk, but in the meantime, conform to the law of average in order to stay safe. After all, as long as you cater to the middle of the population, you get average result, right?
This strategy worked during an “Okay” economy we’ve had for years. As long as you produced something average, people paid average money to exchange to buy your average goods and services. No big profits there, but enough to pay bills.
Today, we don’t have the same economy. Cost of living, food, gas, resources is also higher, which means you have even smaller margin to profit from. So, why operate in the same fashion today as you did five years ago? If you only rely on foot traffic and untargeted mass advertising, those days are GONE. Now, people just ignore anything that attempt to intrude their busy lives.
So, let’s rethink your strategy a bit. Instead of catering to the average folks who would ignore your message, cater to those who care. Where do you find people who care?
You invite them.
You can invite them by making your pitch specifically catered to a special group of people. For example,
Costco – ignore everyone and only reward those who pay them for membership. Forget the average tactic used by average grocery stores. Instead of rewarding everyone, reward only those who pay them.
Robert Paul Salon – free haircuts for teachers. Teachers are well connected with community, all you need is teachers endorsing your business. Find connectors and reward them aggressively.
KogiBBQ – follow them on Twitter or you won’t find them. Every day, Kogi changes routes in LA and you must follow them on Twitter if you want to know where they’re going to show up tonight.
Fresh and Easy – appeal to the green folks, friends of environment, and those folks travel from all over town just to shop there because these customers care. Their mission is not just to be an average grocer, but they are changing environment, one shopper at a time.
Let’s not waste another day, rethink your strategy, employ every smart marketing tactic, ignore everyone in your industry, and start from scratch.
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