Sometimes I’ve just had it with the absurd extremes marketing goes to and I have to stand up and say, “Enough!”
In the window of a convenience store near my house there is a sign which announces, “Cape Cod Ice Sold Here.”
The Cape offers many wonderful things—clam chowder, lobsters, glorious beaches, and cranberries, to name a few—but no one ever returned from a vacation here saying, “I can’t wait to go back next year for some more of that fabulous Cape Cod ice.” Give me a break!
I have nothing against marketing per se. The connection between a product and how it is presented can be useful, but only if it is genuine.
I love the Cape Cod Baseball League because it started here, has stayed here and thrives here, and I don’t hesitate to recommend tours of the Cape Cod Potato Chip factory because, even though the company was bought out by Anheuser-Busch in 1985, it was started by local entrepreneurs.
I don’t even have a problem with using the magic words “Cape Cod” to promote salt water taffy made in Los Angeles or beach plum jelly canned in New Jersey because old timers here still tell stories about taffy pulls and I am able to watch countless beach plum bushes progress from blossom to fruit on my daily walks.
But sometimes marketing goes too far. If everything is special, nothing is, and we’re left with the kind of sameness you find in big city airports where the concourse shops are all the same and the only way you can tell where you are is by the sports team logos on the sweatshirts and baseball caps (which are, ironically, often promoting some franchise without deep roots in the city, like the poor Expos who after thirty-five years in Montreal suddenly became the Washington Nationals six years ago).
I have nothing against marketing per se. The connection between a product and how it is presented can be useful, but only if it is genuine.
In gloomy economic times when finding work is more difficult, you have to do everything possible to market yourself effectively. There is, however, the risk of trying too hard.
When you feel a sense of urgency or a lack of confidence, the way you present yourself can be awkward at best and counterproductive at worst.
I see this in clients who just have to come up with the perfect elevator speech and the correct answer to interview questions, or who resist going to networking events because they fear they won’t be able to say the right thing to someone they meet there.
It’s natural to feel uneasy in such situations, and it’s appropriate to do some work to prepare.
But following a script means that the spiel dominates and you, the talented, vibrant, interesting person that you are, get lost.
Consider what happens when someone who dreads public speaking memorizes every word of a talk. It may make them feel more comfortable, but in choosing to deliver what they have to say by rote, they miss out on the opportunity to energize their audience with a spontaneous remark or connect with them in a more meaningful and direct way.
We know instinctively when someone is giving us a presentation that has been memorized. The difference between a real conversation and an elevator pitch is palpable.
Instead of agonizing over what you are going to say, reflect on three or four things which connect you to the role you’d like to fulfill.
The things about you that are real—like the chowder and the cranberries her—can be shared with ease and good energy, the same way you’d give a friend the highlights of your summer vacation.
Use simple phrases which can be illustrated with sound bites from your own rich history.
For example: “I love working with data and numbers. I found this out early in my career when I was part of a team that computerized telephone records. Later I had the lead responsibility for developing data management procedures for a major corporation. Now, not surprisingly, I’m thinking I’d like to be involved with the digitization of medical records.”
Aim for making every word such an authentic description of your best stuff that there’s no need to memorize it.
Telling people who you are with comfort and conviction is the best possible way to make a natural connection.
The world is craving for things that are one-of-a-kind and real. They are at a premium, and this is your chance to provide them.
Gatorade is now making water. I know this because I saw a Gatorade commercial that asks an intriguing question: “What if Gatorade made water?”
Of course, when I say that they “make” water, what I mean is that they do not make water. There’s no need to actually make water, because there’s water all over the planet—water in lakes, water in rivers, water falling from the sky, water in your home plumbing system, water escaping from your home plumbing system, causing your ceiling to collapse when you’re away on vacation, water just everywhere.
What the bottled water companies do is get some of this water, put it into bottles, give it a brand name, sell it to consumers, then smack themselves in their corporate foreheads and say, “We can’t believe we’re getting away with this! Do you think they’d buy air? How about dirt?”
