How Fidel Castro can make you a better marketer

When Fidel Castro stepped down last night, Cuba lost a president-dictator-baseball-fan.

You and I gained a powerful marketing partner—if only in the form of a lesson.

Good copywriting is a dictatorship—not a democracy. The majority doesn’t rule. Fidel Castro can make us better marketers if we apply his principles to our writing and editing processes.

It sounds counterintuitive. In the U.S., we believe in the all-knowing wisdom of the majority. Collaboration is good. Diversity is good. Consensus is good.

But democracy is the enemy when it comes to marketing and copywriting. And the majority is often wrong.

What’s the quickest way to destroy a powerful piece of copy? Circulate to a team of people and allow everyone to edit. Ask for a vote on each headline. You’ll find that the majority will take out all clarity and punch. You’re left with a dull, lifeless, technically accurate report whose commas outnumber the seconds your audience spends reading it.

Here’s a typical democratic sentence: “We integrate, aggregate, and automate your data so you can analyze, process, and optimize patient health information.” This may be technically accurate, but no one outside your team will know what it means. If they manage to read that far.

Like a good dictator, you can and should include a diversity of perspectives. But that should happen during the research process, as you interview your team and your customers. And it should happen during the message development process, when you drill down into your target audience and create positioning and messaging that resonates with them. For example, marketing consultant Laura Lowell of Impact Marketing Group helps her clients develop messaging and positioning by spending lots of time at the outset researching—before a single word is written. Then, she tests it with the client’s target audience and makes adjustments. By the time they’re ready to start writing copy, they have clear guidelines about what resonates with their audience.

How do you fight democracy, the enemy of good copywriting, to be more like Castro? Designate a dictator, aka decisionmaker, who is responsible for all changes. And research, research, research. When you have a clear picture of the target audience, and have tested your messaging, you can oppose the claims of the majority. A simple, “This resonates with our target audience” will silence the populace.

Finally, being like Fidel also means knowing when to step away and stop endlessly tinkering. Research and positioning enable you to do this.

If you have any tips on becoming a better dictator-editor, comment away.

Posted by Kelly on February 20th, 2008 at 11:42 pm

Thanks, Havi. I guess for a solo entrepreneur who is writing their own copy, it definitely helps to have the right people read it before pressing send. I’ve found the question “Can I get your reaction to this?” is a good way to ask for feedback to avoid having them edit it to death.