Teddy Leung's Blog

In Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow, he tells us that in order for people to notice an advertisement, it has to stand out.  We live in a world that’s flooded with advertising and so we have learned to tune out this noise.  What grab our attention are things that we have never seen before – things that are different.

In his book, Seth describes a situation where you are driving past a field of cows.  Cows are pretty cool, but they’re definitely not something you’d pull over to see.  What if, however, a cow was completely purple?  Now that would be something worth pulling over for.

And as much as this purple cow idea is related to commercial advertisements, the same can be applied to people, or more specifically, job applicants.  We can think of resumes and cover letters as our own personal advertisement, and the recruiters are the audience, who are just as likely to tune out the noise.

I think in business school, we seem to have this desire to pack our resumes.  We seem to think that it’s great to have these President and VP titles.  But when you look at this from the recruiter’s perspective, his stack of resumes has 100 Presidents and VPs.  You might feel a certain pride for having these titles, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really set you apart.

Instead, find something that’s special about you – your own purple cow.  The goal here is to be different.

Sofiya mentioned an interesting point in her blog: what do small businesses with little capital do to market their product?  Obviously, they would not have the budget to run large marketing campaigns, so small business owners need to find alternatives.  Simply by searching through Google, many internet sources will give small businesses ideas about grass-roots or low-cost marketing.  This makes the topic a little mundane.  So instead, I would like to talk about marketing even before the business has been created, or what I would like to call “pre-conception marketing”.

If you think marketing is expensive, think about how expensive it is to simply get a business started.  So if a business really wants to consider costs, it needs to find out if its idea is even viable – by marketing, of course.  No, the business will not start any campaigns, pin up posters, or send out flyers.  What it will do, however, is use the most direct form of marketing, speaking to its customers (or rather, potential customers).

The store front may not be built, but the idea has already been created, so it’s up to the business to sell its idea to potential customers.  The main question to ask the potential customer is “Would you buy it?”.  If they would, then that’s great!  Continue with the business plan.  But if they’re not too keen on the idea, then that’s great too!  Why?  Because at least you didn’t sink any cash into it!

Marketing is something that needs to take place at every life stage of a business, not just after it’s been created.  If an idea does not sell early on, it might be difficult to change that even after money has been put into it.  Remember, though, ideas are abundant.  Cash isn’t.

As the Republican primaries are on their way, candidates are fighting for the chance to run against Obama in the general election.  Jake Woodson wrote about this topic in his blog when he compared marketing the Republican candidate Mitt Romney to marketing a consumer product.  He focused on the similarities between the two, noting the four P’s as well as their use of social media.  This, however, led me to think more about the differences.

The largest difference that exists between marketing a candidate and marketing a product, I think, is the use of attack ads.  During election campaigns, a politician’s favourite marketing strategy seems to be attacking their rivals, reminding people about their rivals’ past failures and wrongdoings.  Rather than focusing on telling their audience why they are better, politicians seem to like telling people why their rivals are worse.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ADNC0wwOQE&feature=relmfu[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZKejP1UOLo&feature=related[/youtube]

And obviously this tactic works.  It’s this bombardment of attack ads that allowed Newt Gingrich to defeat Mitt Romney, the frontrunner, in the South Carolina primary.  What if this approach was taken by consumer products?  Companies could make a commercial that doesn’t even explain why their products are better but one that simply trashes their competitor.  After all, a good reputation is difficult to build; whereas, it takes very little to destroy one.  This may take the fun out of commercials, but fear is a good motivator of choices.

Today is the Superbowl and I’m curious to see whether the candidates are willing to spend the money to run attack ads during the game.  One thing I can predict, though, is that after all these attack ads, Americans will not be able to vote based on trust; they will simply choose the lesser of two evils.

[Go Patriots!!]

While working on an in-class assignment to come up with challenges that an eco-friendly laundry detergent might face from within its own company, my group thought that it may not be allocated enough money for marketing.  This idea reminded me of one of Seth Godin’s blogs.  It was called “How much are you going to tip?”.

The premise of the blog was that being the presumed front-runner appeals to the people who want to play it safe and follow the crowd.  In the case of laundry detergent, the obvious front runners are companies like Tide and Sunlight.  Based on their advertisements alone, one gets the feeling that these companies claim a large market share and are products that people generally like.

This brings up a question, though: What if the eco-friendly laundry detergent company advertised as much as Tide or Sunlight?  From a financial perspective, it may seem unwise to spend as much money on advertising as Tide or Sunlight when its market share isn’t nearly as large.  However, unless the company is willing to advertise as though it was a front-runner, I don’t think that the company will ever become one.  This means that it can only rely on the support of the consumers who want to help the smaller companies reach their goals.  Though, you can’t really rely on this.  As Seth Godin puts it: “We say we want to root for the underdog, but actually, we want to be seen as rooting for whomever everyone else is rooting for.”

It will take a lot for the company to allow itself to spend so much money on advertising.  But I think this is what Steve Jobs would call a “bet-the-company moment”.  It takes courage to succeed.

What I have learned from Comm 299 is that a lot of times, how you say something may be more important than what it is you’re actually saying.  What I learned about myself is that I can say things well – well enough, at least.  This is such a confidence booster as you realize that being able to speak gives you an advantage over others who cannot.  Despite others’ experiences, skills, or interests, if they cannot communicate them, then how much more of these three things they have is irrelevant.  I have a good chance of winning if I’m able to present myself better in an interview.  The ability to speak is a great asset to have and will be something that I take away from Comm 299 with me.

“Act now and apologize later.”

– Kingsley Hurlington

In 2009, I had the privilege of attending Queen’s University for a summer program, where I met my greatest teacher, Kingsley Hurlington.  Among the many lessons that Kingsley taught, the one that I remember most is “act now and apologize later.”  Kingsley emphasized that we must believe in ourselves, despite others who may not.  In fact, our lives seem to be filled with countless authority figures from whom we must obtain permission, and at times, they may serve as barriers to our advancing forward.  It is because of this, that we may need to act without such permission or against others’ disapproval, provided we believe what we’re doing is for the best.  Of course, we hope that our actions prove personal convictions correct and that an apology will settle the matter.  Yet, even if we were wrong, I’d rather know that than think “What if?”.

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