Breaking Out of the Box

   
REALLY EFFECTIVE MARKETING makes a connection. You can't force it, you can only set things in motion. Then it's up to the whims of your audience to either buy in or turn away. If you do things "like we've always done them", you’re probably going to get the same old results. If you do things the way everyone else does them, you’ll probably get incremental gains at best. I suppose you could spend a lot of money to determine whether blue ink or green ink is more effective at getting people to open your mailer (or read on in your web site), but, come on, that’s merely about squeezing out results, not creating inspired, passionate buyers.
        So I’d like to offer you an alternative, as expressed in the web site for a new book by Miranda July. She could have put together a typical author’s site, with a bio and a picture and testimonials and an excerpt from her book. And that might have sparked interested in some people, but it would have been too easy to dismiss, as well.
        INSTEAD, she took a path that yanks you along on a very entertaining ride, and gives you a much better sense of her writing — no, her vision — than anything she might have put on a standard web site. It’s a tour-de-force, using nothing more than a dry-erase marker and a few kitchen appliances.
        So click on this link (if you didn’t click the one above already) and then ask yourself: “How am I involving my audience?” If you don’t have a good, clear idea — or if it’s something someone else might do — then you’re limiting your results.

[Many thanks to Frank Roche and his excellent KnowHR blog for highlighting Miranda’s site (and for enabling me to, ah, sample the graphic above...). Frank’s insights go far beyond the world of HR, so check him out when you have a moment.]

[You can find more on this and related subjects at The YouBlog — practical ideas on presentations, persuasion, selling, and communications.]

Comments

[John Windsor]

You're so right, Ron. I was intrigued with the first image, and was totally hooked by the third image, when she revealed that she was writing on top of her refrigerator. You'd never come up with that kind of creativity from a group brainstorming session.

[Ron Hayes]

I found this web site to be truly engaging. It kept me interested the whole way. I applaud her for her creativity and "out-of-the-box" thinking. Just goes to show that sometimes we get too caught up in technology to take advantage of real creative opportunities to tell our stories.