All I Need to Know About Marketing, I Learned in Kindergarten (Part 3)

Here is the last of my reflections on Robert Fulgham’s "All I need to know…" list. 

• Take a nap every afternoon.  It’s that whole "Sharpen the Saw" concept.  Take the time to step back and forget what you’ve done and what you’ve thought about it.  Then come back with fresh eyes and be your own consultant. 
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. I love this one.  They say that marketing is not a department in a company, it’s the whole organization’s responsibility. 

Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.  This one is all about what I like to call adapting strategies that work.  If you just take a look around you and just for fun apply the first business model you see to your organization and see what you get.  Can you use a "Widget of the month" concept?  What if you owned a retail store and instead of customers you had members?

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.  To me, this speaks to "product or service rationalization"  Just because it was a good idea 30 years ago – it may not be a good idea now.  If your customers are complaining about price, if sales have gone down, if customers are ambivalent about what you’re doing – then it may be time for it to R.I.P.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.  Look around you for ideas and opportunities to partner and adapt and watch your audience use your product or service.  In what ways can you tweak something so that it’s easier to use, get, buy replace?

Whew – that was a long series, but really fun to do. I’d love to know what your adaptations are of common lists like this one.