How to hack marketing ?
Following the ( dirty ) historical way
A few years after the “greed is good” era, a new buzzword emerged: “marketing”. Marketing was the new way to make money. The late 1980s and early 1990s were a time when the internet had just begun to be used for commercial purposes. Companies were starting to set up websites, and people were getting online.
In this era, marketers started to realize that they could use all sorts of techniques to get people’s attention and make them buy stuff. They could use psychology, social engineering and even hypnosis to manipulate people into buying things they don’t need! This was a whole new world of possibilities!
“Marketing” has become a dirty word in many circles, but it still remains an essential part of running any business. It doesn’t have to be manipulative or unethical; it just means figuring out what works and what doesn’t work in order to sell your product or service as effectively as possible.
How do you hack marketing? You learn how to get people to notice you. You study your target audience and figure out what they want and how they think, in order to come up with effective strategies that will make them buy from you.
To hack marketing, you start by hacking marketing’s monopoly.
You attack marketing’s monopoly on your customer’s mind.
And you attack marketing’s monopoly on your customer’s attention.
You hack marketing by making your product or service so good that it stands out from every other product or service in the same category.
To hack marketing, you have to hack yourself.
You transform yourself from a marketer to a creator .
You become a person who makes products and services that are so good that people can’t ignore them.
You become a person who develops such strong habits of thought, values and behavior that you build something of value for people before they even know they need it.
You become a person who creates value for people when they don’t even know they have to have it yet.
You become an expert at creating desire, not just telling people what they need.
You become an artist of persuasion, not just a peddler of promotion. By doing this, you make money without being manipulative or sleazy about it.
To hack marketing, you have to know the rules of the game.
It is a game of perceptions. It has nothing to do with creativity or technology. Creative apps and fresh ideas are almost always in pursuit of some agenda or other. The agenda is to make money or to win some political point.
It is a game of power. The source of that power is the monopoly over the perception, and this monopoly comes from the fact that you are part of the establishment. You are an insider who has been there for long enough to have a sense of history, not just present history, but also historical trends. You know where all the bodies are buried, so you can predict how things will play out in time.
It is a game of strategy and tactics. It requires you to think big picture (strategy) and micro-picture (tactics). It requires you to think about what your opponent will do next and how you can preempt him tomorrow. It requires you to be able to read your opponent’s mind and figure out what he is thinking about doing next (strategy) and then figure out how your opponent will try to do it (tactics).
It is a game of communication. It is about convincing other people to do your bidding. It’s about making them believe that your ideas are true, even if you know they aren’t. It is about making them believe that you are on their side and that you are looking out for their interests. It is about making them believe that you are the only one who can save them from the “other” side.
It is a game of lies, half-truths and omission ; a game that rewards the most skilled liar, the most manipulative strategist and the most successful manipulator of people.
It is a game where the most successful players are those who can lie without blinking an eye, who can lie in such a way that you think they are telling the truth.
It is a game of conning people into doing things that they otherwise would never do. It is about getting people to open up their wallets for things that will not benefit them. It is about getting people to follow you when they know deep down inside that you’re wrong. It is about getting people to vote against their own best interests and vote for someone who will screw them over in the end.
It’s a game where you are always on the edge of your seat and never know what might happen next. It’s a game that requires energy, passion, dedication and complete devotion to your cause, whether it is right or wrong. It’s a game that keeps you up at night thinking about how you can win the next round.
It’s a game where there will always be winners and losers ; where one person goes home happy while another goes home sad; where someone gets what they want and another gets nothing; where the only thing that matters is whether your side wins.
13 dirty tricks of the trade
1. Develop an air of superiority and unparalleled omniscience.
2. The low hanging fruit — the basic mechanics-are easy to understand but hard to do, as many people abandon them because they don’t ‘feel right.’ But it’s in those basic mechanics where 80 percent of your revenue comes from, so naturally social proof is crucial.
3. Never be seen as a salesperson. First, you have to create a cult of personality. Second, you have to make people feel like they’re getting something for free.
4. Never be seen as a salesman and always give people the impression that they are getting something for free, but it’s okay if they don’t know what it is yet because they’re going to find out soon enough and it’s going to blow their mind.
5. If someone says something negative about your offering or about what you do or how you do it, acknowledge the truth in their statement and then explain how your product or service makes it a non-issue.
6. Be consistent. This is hard because you’re going to be tempted to change up your approach. Resist that temptation and stick to a few core ideas and messages, but make sure you have a variety of them so that you don’t have to repeat yourself too often or too obviously.
7. Limit offers and promotions as much as possible because they can create an expectation of scarcity — and that’s not good. If you have to offer something for free, make it seem like more of a gift than an incentive to buy.
8. Don’t be afraid to be a little controversial or outrageous. You want people to wonder, “Does he really mean that?” or “Is that for real?” If people are talking about you, you’re doing it right.
9. Use humor whenever possible because it disarms your audience and makes them more likely to listen to what you have to say.
10. Don’t be afraid to be creative. If you’re boring, nobody will pay attention to you and then they won’t buy from you. Being boring is a sure way to fail online.
11. Be clear about your mission, and then make it your mission in everything that you do. Have a reason for every word, every action, every idea that comes out of your mouth or your business.
12. If something isn’t working, change it up until it does work — and then keep doing it that way until people stop paying attention or the world changes around you so much that what was once effective becomes ineffective (and then change again).
13. Don’t worry about being first in anything because the best thing to do is usually second or third in whatever category you’re interested in dominating (or at least being a major player in). Don’t worry about being first. Worry about being second and doing it better than everyone else did.
Introducing the Duck and Swan method
When the duck and swan are in the water, they are indistinguishable. However, when they walk on the land, their differences become obvious.
The duck’s legs are short and webbed. It is therefore a good swimmer. The swan’s legs are long and powerful. It is therefore a good runner. We can see that each animal is suited for its environment by its physical attributes, which have evolved over time to allow it to survive and thrive in its niche.
Similarly, every business has a niche environment where it thrives because of its unique attributes that were designed to allow it to survive and succeed in that niche.
The key question is: “What physical attributes of your business make you suited for your niche?” If you can understand what these specific physical attributes are, then you will be able to identify your niche better than anyone else and then design your marketing around this niche instead of trying to fit into someone else’s mold or model of what they think your niche should be.
Let’s apply the duck and swan method to a few different niches and see how it works:
Movies: Horrible Bosses is a 2011 comedy starring Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis as three friends who conspire to kill their horrible bosses. The movie has grossed over $100 million at the box office, proving that people really want to see movies about horrible bosses. This is a niche that Hollywood has been exploiting for years. So if you have an idea for a movie about horrible bosses, you may have just found your niche!
Theater: Broadway shows are one of the most profitable niches in theater. For example, The Book of Mormon has grossed over $500 million dollars on Broadway alone since its 2011 debut. Clearly there are many people who like seeing Broadway shows about Mormons — so if you have an idea for a Broadway show based around Mormons living in Africa, you may have found your niche!
Babies: Babies are one of the most profitable niches in entertainment. A few years ago, the movie The Pacifier grossed over $200 million at the box office. A few months ago, a TV show called Baby Boss debuted on Nickelodeon, and it was their highest rated premiere in over two years. Clearly there are many people who like seeing movies and TV shows about babies — so if you have an idea for a movie or TV show about babies that involves ninjas, you may have found your niche!
You could take this idea even further and use it to brainstorm your next business opportunity. For example, maybe you’re considering starting a business selling baby products online. You could apply the duck/swan method to that niche by thinking about successful online businesses related to babies: Amazon (swan), eBay (duck), Facebook (duck), etc. Then think about what those companies have in common: they’re all online. And their products are all in digital form, which means that there’s no need for delivery trucks, warehouses, etc. — so you can just sell them from home!
By thinking about a new business opportunity in terms of a duck/swan dichotomy, you might come up with an idea that’s more likely to succeed than if you’d thought only about swans.
The duck/swan method is just one way to brainstorm your next big idea. By making analogies between two different things, you can often discover new ideas that might not have occurred to you otherwise. And by applying this method to a specific niche or industry, you can get even more creative with your ideas and come up with something truly unique and novel — something that nobody else has ever thought of before!
