What would you say if I told you that “you’re nuts” is the highest compliment your customers could possibly give you? It’s easy to get so wrapped up in popular public opinion and mainstream thinking that we forget insanity can be the best marketing tool we have.
Mainstream=Upstream
Using mainstream marketing to sell your products is like skydiving with a pillowcase. Yeah, there’s a slim chance you’ll land in just the right spot for somebody to save your bacon. But I wouldn’t count on it. It’s far more likely you’re going to spend a lot of money to enjoy that giant splat at the end.
Gruesome? Absolutely. And absolutely true.
Mentally unstable like a fox...
Kick Mainstream Marketing to the Curb
Anytime you catch a headline out of the corner of your eye that makes the words “You’ve got to be kidding me!” explode out of your mouth, the marketing team that schemed up that headline won. They got your attention. More importantly, they got you to keep reading. And they did it with ideas like this one:
How to be a Productivity Unicorn
Not guru. Unicorn.
Who on earth talks about productivity unicorns, you ask? Someone nuts enough to want to people to read what they write.
The Only Box is the One You Invent
I’ve never actually taken the time to confirm this (although @meetingboy probably could) but out of the box thinking is one of today’s employer favorites. The problem is, “out of the box thinking” implies there’s a box you should be thinking in when the truth is, the only box that exists around your line of thought is the one you build yourself. It’s the one you operate in whether you want to or not because you think people will think you’re crazy if you tell them they’re thinking too small.
We’re a planet full of people who used to think if you and 2 other friends wanted a snapshot, you’d better go in together to pick who was going to stand in the middle because they were going to die first. Not to mention that whole “the earth is flat” thing. We’re a little slow on the uptake sometimes when it comes to new ideas. So go ahead. Grab an ax and go Office Space on that box.
Be the one who markets with insanity.