What having the flu taught me about marketing
Getting the flu is like getting a mini cancer. You wonder–is this what it’s like to be old?
Last week I embarked on my annual forced business retreat–aka the flu–where thoughts finally outnumber daily tasks and my brain is flooded with ideas from the cafeteria lady who lives there. For such an unproductive period, it was an incredibly productive period.
Being in pain attunes you to others who are in pain, like changing a channel. Suddenly, everyone seems to have the flu. It’s a whole new world of people in pain, people who aren’t just walking around moaning, but who are struggling to use all the milk before it goes bad, who forgot to cancel their fitness membership, who still laugh at LOLcats. Or is it just that you’re paying more attention?
You also become highly attuned to b.s. from marketers who presume to understand you. Liz Strauss had a great write-up about Motrin IB’s latest commercial. I’m not pregnant, but if this had been made about people with the flu, I can see how it could grate.
Writing from a place of empathy feels good. It’s good to be reminded that the best source of inspiration is other people who are in that place. Not in a creative brief.
I’m not always there, day in and day out. Sometimes, against my better judgment, I’ll type, even though I know my heart is in writing everything out longhand. It’s that desire to always be efficient, to do things faster and faster. When I write things out longhand, the copy tends to be even more results-inducing than the copy that comes out when I’m just paying attention to rules and best practices and typing efficiently away.
Could Microsoft Word be the reason so many messages fail to resonate?
Wouldn’t it be nice to get these insights every day, without having to get the flu?
I would like to push myself (and my clients) to be more authentic.
Authentic in that we see the problem as an experience, and our solution as just one piece of it. We address that whole experience, and we do it in their language. Companies that come to me when I have a flu, for example, and don’t offer me medicine for my symptoms, but offer me 5 ways to give yourself permission to be sick. I can deal with the symptoms, you know. It’s all the things I experience around the symptoms that really bother me. This constellation of worries.
I also worry about the risks of following the money, and missing something magical that might happen when I have an unstructured day, and risk being surprised. I think my clients worry about that, too.
What the flu taught me about marketing is that no message can be crafted without really understanding the prospect’s experience; and that often the best ideas come when we snap closed our laptops, stop typing away, and let the crazy cafeteria lady in our heads start talking.
Maybe the prescription for improving your marketing is getting sick at least once a year. On the other hand, a few strategically placed life-altering problems might work, too.
4 Responses to “What having the flu taught me about marketing”
Hope you’re feeling better three weeks later, but I’m wondering if you’ll post your personal ad here as well as at Havi’s? I’d love to see how a new employer takes on the submissions, the vetting, the interview or tests, the trial period, the choosing, etc. Although if you’re too busy to enjoy time off, you may be too busy to blog — so we hope your new hire allows you enough free time to get back to it. (Although I always have to tell my standardly-employed pals and family: when you work for yourself, your time is never “free.” (We’re always making the decision to bill for this hour or go have fun, etc.)
Good luck with it~ !
I’m afraid of the crazy cafeteria in my head. She has wrinkles that stretch farther than the eye can see. I must admit that crazy lady has good ideas and when I do let her out she always has something wise to say.
After doing Yoga, I lay down in Savasana and just listen. Because of this quiet time, I had two really good ideas for blog posts. Like all good copy writing we have to know what the audience wants. Like you said, just listen and let it flow. Well, you didn’t say that, but that’s what I took from your post.
I hope you feel better soon.
Karl, I’ve asked the cafeteria lady in your head to dole out an extra serving of tater tots for your comment here.
I hear she really likes Yoga. My cafeteria lady doesn’t, consider yourself lucky! Thanks for your comment.
GirlPie, what a great suggestion on blogging about how the process goes — I will absolutely do that.
As far as posting the ad here, I’m already getting such great responses just from sending it to 2 friends, that I think my search might not have to go beyond that…
Thanks for your encouragement! I can’t wait to get back to this blog. (And maybe I can have some guest posters, now that I’m expanding my team!)