Seduced by a 163 Year Old Man in Safeway in the Middle of the Night

His name is Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 ??“ October 18, 1931) was an American inventor, scientist, and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world.

The Story..

This weekend I went to Safeway in the middle of the night to get some milk for kids. While at the checkout counter I saw the Time Magazine with Thomas Edison on the cover. The small headline “How One Powerful Idea Changed America” on the cover page instantly grabbed my attention.

The second sub headline “Why He’s Relevant Today” further deepened my desire. Given the entrepreneur I’m I had no option but to get my hands on it.

Lessons in Marketing…

• The Magazine was very strategically placed on the counter to attract a lot of eyeballs. ( Product Placement)
• The image of Edison demonstrates success. There is no real life photograph of Edison holding a light bulb, hence the designers made a portrait with Edison holding an illuminated light bulb. (An Image is worth 100 words)
• The headline had no curiosity. In fact all it was just made of two words, “Tomas Edison”. For all practically reason there was no headline ( This proves you don’t need a great headline when everything else is right)
• The sub headline ” How One Powerful Idea Changed America” intensified my attention pushing me over to the borderline of desire to know more.
• The Sub-Sub Headline “Inside His Idea Factory” even further deepened my desire
• Then a sub-sub-sub headline again “graphic:How His Intentions Worked” Almost made me own the magazine.
• Finally one more bold sub-sub headline “Why he’s relevant today” did the close.

I did turn the pages to make sure there were graphics in the magazine as the sub-sub-sub headline claimed. ( Verification of claim). Here is copy of the cover image that I took from Time Magazine.

In Conclusion:

I grabbed the magazine, paid $4.95 and happily went home. If the folks at the Time magazine would have priced it at $19.95 I would have still paid them. I was so caught up with the presentation, message, placement and promotion that the price became completely irrelevant to me. Now that is what I call a “perfect sale”.

Aren’t you as a marketer, salesman, entrepreneur trying to get a perfect sale in your business on a daily basis?. Indeed you are. But you see a perfect sale happens once in a long time. I bet 200 years from now TIME magazine will bring back the same issue change the color, change the picture, change the price and make more money than what they made this long weekend.

That is what I call “Iconic Influence”, not just “Influence”

Can you create marketing campaigns that are this “Iconic”? the answer is YES. You don’t need to be a Edison or a Jackson to influence or seduce people. You can be who you are today and still make an impact.

In my next post I’ll be discussing more on how you too can control the mind of your prospects and clients in an “Iconic Way” like many successful do… certainly in a good way :)-

While I’m working on my next post, I want you to go to you local book store and get your hands on this nice anniversary issue, there is a lot that you can learn from this man.

Certainly he is more relevant now than ever.