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.
That article inspired me to write abouth Success today..
Defining success is one of the most complicated things to do. Almost everyone I have ever spoken to on defining success while traveling along the length and breadth of Country, I have found that people are out of words when it comes to explaining what success means for them.
Personally I’m passionate about traveling and talking to new people whenever I can. I love to learn about other people, their culture, their beliefs, their preferences and everything I possibly can in the time duration I get to spend with them.
I have seen that people have a very broad idea about their success. Most of the definitions I get are like a happy-go-lucky life, no debts, plenty of money and all of them just want to be successful. But, when asked ???successful at what???™ they are lost.
From all the definitions and descriptions I have come across in my career, I have come to convince myself that what all of us want in life is a good life and that??™s what is success for us or; we will not be happy and satisfied. But, desiring a good life is too broad and unspecific to wish for. So, one need to ask himself or herself ???What is good life for me???™ and then sit to define every thing that you want to be a part of your good life.
You may go about writing; being able to see the sunrise every morning, enjoying more time with family, experiencing the pleasure of a great lifestyle, being able to buy everything you like, etc. So this becomes your list of things that make up a good life for you and you desire to live this way. Then what you need to do is work out how can you achieve all of this.
Work out, how you can go about living it. Work out, what kind of a person it takes to actually all of that you have listed. Work out, what all you will have to do to achieve it. Finally, work out how much time you will possibly take to achieve what you have listed and then get on work. Get started. Get on with it your list and start working towards each item on your list, one by one.
These steps are very simple but not so easy to work up on. These steps will not only help you design and define your success but also help you live it if you work upon it full commitment. Even though the awareness is spreading all across the globe about the need of personal development but still more than 95% of the people do not make the effort of this simple exercise and that??™s why they suffer in the long run.
Now, this appears to be a bit time consuming and a lot to do but the rewards are infinitely greater for who do this part. The process is more enticing then you can imagine. You cannot imagine what it can do to your spirit. It??™s a challenge if you can stop yourself from roaring after you have started on this magnificent process.
Success to me is seeing a smile on my face and others around me.
Success to me is achieving the impossible.
Success to me is showing love to those I care for.
Success to me is being proud of who I am.
Success to me is me giving a helping hand to those in need.
Success to me is helping others find a brighter future.
The difficult I do immediately. The impossible takes a little longer.
Introducing My New Business Card
There is one thing that I have not done in my business in the last two years, i.e, pass my business card around at the seminars & events. The truth is, I never had one by choice.
The last time around when I created a business card it was just a basic one with my name, address etc. It had my photo but that’s it. All in all it was imperfect. It did more damage than good.
I felt very uncomfortable passing a basic card around, hence I decided not to give out any. This adversely effected my networking.
All of this changed recently when I saw Joel Bauer in action( watch the video below and you will see what I mean).
Then I met Alex Mandossian a couple of weeks ago after six long years, and was blown away by his “Google Card”.
One thing lead to the other and I’m happy to proudly present my new business card to you. In the last few days, I have handed over 70 of these cards and every time someone received one, they felt lucky. Amazing..
In the last two days I have received 4 emails from people asking me for my business card. I’m honored :)-
Here is a small video that explains the psychology behind this card. Thanks to Joel Bauer and Alex Mandossian without them project would have stayed incomplete.
Here is Joel Bauer’s infamous “Your Business Card is Crap” video. This video has over million hits on Youtube already.
Life Is Not About Being Liked. Its about being Effective. Powerful stuff. Joel is just phenomenal.
