..And why you should become a local celebrity,
or at least use celebrities in your marketing.
As a society we are crazy about celebrities. Most major newspapers and news reporting websites have some section or front-page story about what celebrities are doing. For example, if I were to go to www.yahoo.com, I would find on their homepage stories about celebrities. In fact, one of the main stories today is how Nicole Ritchie looked really good at the Oscars in her evening gown during her pregnancy.
Now come on! This is one of the headline stories at Yahoo. Do you really care how well Nicole looks in her evening ware? You might not, but for some reason the majority of Americans do care about celebrities.
Why is America celebrity crazed? It really goes much deeper to the culture of our nation as a whole. Recently I finished reading a fantastic book, “The Culture Code” by Clotaire Rapaille. The subtitle of this book is, “An Ingenious Way To Understand Why People Around The World Live And Buy As They Do.” Well that pretty much sums it up for me. As a marketer of any product or service, I want to know why consumers chose to buy or not to buy.
The book deals with the deeper psychological reasons why someone will buy in America. It talks about the “codes” that the American culture has and how as marketers we need to tap into those codes. This book literally opened my mind. It is a must read for all Traffic Guys members.
On a simple level, people are interested in other people. Americans like to know what other famous Americans are doing. Also people want to belong to something larger than themselves. Most of us like movies or a good novel because it helps us escape the day-to-day rat race of trying to be all things to all people in America. A good movie let’s us become involved in something different and larger than ourselves. It allows us to be Indiana Jones for an hour and a half.
Even deeper, Americans love celebrities because America has a culture of being youthful, alive, and independent. That is why Coca-cola, Nike shoes, rock-n-roll, blue jeans, and loud and violent movies do so well here and in other places around the world.
Just yesterday I read that Lebron James, who is an NBA star for the Cleveland Cavaliers, wants to be the first billionaire athlete. My guess is that Tiger Woods will beat him to the punch. But the mere fact that an athlete that takes a stick and hits a ball into a hole or takes a ball and shoots it into a basket can become a billionaire, describes what America is all about.
Now, I love basketball and golf like the next guy, however I can step back and see what American is all about and why we are celebrity crazed.
We love celebrities because we are endlessly fascinated with all the adolescent and youthful mistakes they make. They show us that extreme behavior is perfectly acceptable. As Americans we all fall under the “Peter Pan” principle…we just don’t want to grow up.
What does this all mean to you? It means you should tap into this Culture Code of “not wanting to grow up” and being a kid at heart even when you are older. You can tap into this by positioning yourself as a local celebrity and sharing exciting information about your life so that people become fascinated with you, look for your marketing material, and buy only from you. Basically you start to entertain your customers. Entertainment does not come from boring ads and “me too” marketing campaigns.
Now you don’t have to act crazy or do silly things. You still become a local celebrity and held in high regards and respected.
Many of you will feel uncomfortable with this strategy; then, I would next suggest aligning yourself with local celebrities. You might even consider hiring a local celebrity to endorse your company. Or you can make your staff local celebrities. If you get enough courage to even send out a monthly newsletter, you can also make celebrities of your customers by including and highlighting them in your newsletter.
When it comes down to it, people want to be entertained and be involved in something larger than themselves. You should provide them that opportunity! Entertain your customers with good stories, fun marketing, and an over-the-top customer experience.
This will also help you to forge a strong emotional bond with your customers so they will support you for life. If you are comfortable with making yourself a local celebrity then I strongly suggest that you move forward to implement that strategy. You can simply start by using your name and face in all your advertising. Next month I will touch more on how to actually implement this strategy full scale. Remember, no one can be YOU…and that is a hard Unique Selling Propositions to copy. If done correctly, you will always have a flow of constant and loyal paying customer in your store.
