Guerrilla or Jackass?

Guerrilla or Jackass?

Everything is marketing and marketing is everything. And if you subscribe to the theory of Guerrilla Marketing, virtually anything that is unexpected and full of surprise can give you an advantage. Actually, the purpose of guerrilla marketing is to give your product or service an advantage, better yet, an unfair advantage.

I learned this first-hand in the 80’s working in the golf industry. Our company was a start-up, desperate to gain a toehold in the market. Perhaps a lot like your business or a business you frequent in your hometown. Perhaps a lot like the business I witnessed today using what they may think was a guerrilla marketing tactic.

Guerrilla or jackass? While it may seem obvious, the distinction is subtle.

It’s war out there. Grabbing the attention of a potential customer is a battle. Between limited funds, onerous governmental restrictions, worldwide competition through the internet, and the massive amount of other advertising, businesses today have resorted to unusual means to gain attention.

While it may not be that unusual today, not long ago a young man or woman on a street corner dressed in costume and spinning a hand-held sign while dancing was unusual. Now it is ubiquitous. From pizza to pawn shops, what once stood out is now commonplace. We drive right by noticing these former guerrilla markers no more than we do car alarms.

But today was different. Today I witnessed this technique being used in a way I had never thought of before, much less seen before. And I can assure you we will all begin to see this technique used for better or worse.

It is one of the busiest intersections in our town. Thousands upon thousands of cars drive through daily, many of them more than a couple of times a day. As a natural location for retail establishments, the area is flooded with signs of all kinds. The buildings located slightly off the corners have bigger, higher, more noticeable signs to be seen from a distance. All in all, a lot like any busy intersection in America.

Just off the northeast corner of the intersection, just a couple hundred yards back stands a building with a franchise location of a “gently used clothing store”. We’ll call this store Competitor A. While we have had thrift stores in our town for a number of years, two different used clothing franchise stores have opened in our town in the past two years. Up until now, everything I’ve described is normal.

On the northeast corner of this intersection stood a young man holding a sign. Not unusual until you notice the sign has a big red arrow, seemingly directing you to go to the right bearing the company name of a competing national franchise “gently used clothing store”. That’s right, Competitor B has camped out with sign in hand in front of Competitor A’s store.

While I’ve seen companies buy billboards in front of a competitor’s location, I always thought that was fair. If the local company wanted to prevent it, all they need do is buy the billboard.

But how does one stop a jackass? In the past people didn’t want to be jackasses. They cared about their public image. But today society doesn’t punish someone for being a jackass. Many like the idea they’re so brash.

So am I being too harsh? Is Competitor B a guerrilla or a jackass? I’d love to hear your thoughts.


Don't Let This "Creep" Ruin Your Plans

Making lasting change requires learning new skills that will be repeated over and over until they become habits.  Habits are the “remote control” of our lives, governing virtually every action we take.

I remember our first television remote control.  It had four buttons: On, Off, Volume, Channel.  Old Four-Button RemoteOddly, these are the four I use most when I can successfully navigate the remote control to this day.

Today our remote control has sixty-three buttons.  Yours may have more but it is doubtful it has less.  I have no idea what most of the buttons do, but I have them just in case I need them.  I presume I should be comforted by all the extra features at my fingertips and the “just-in-case” features I could use should I find the need.

But I’m not.  Actually, I’m troubled most of the time and frustrated all of the time by my remote.  And yes, you’ve guessed it, I’ve found my way out of the chair and back to the television to turn the volume up or down, change channels, and even turn the set on or off.  It’s just easier than using my multi-featured remote which was designed to make my life easier.

It is called “feature creep” and it refers to the things added to a device simply because there is space for it.  The processor has a bit more space, let’s add a feature.  We need a bigger processor to handle all the buttons, but when we add the bigger processor we have room for more buttons, and the process continues until no one knows why we have all the buttons.

I’ve found that remote control to be a metaphor for my life as well. In my early years there wasn’t much to think about or worry about.  My life was like that early remote with four buttons:  Play, School, Sleep, Eat.

Now my life is much like the sixty-three button remote I have.  Thinking about all those time-saving, money-making, life-changing gadgets I’ve purchased over the years fatigues me.  And that’s just the beginning.  What about all the features I’ve allowed to creep into my life, the ideas and information that seemed useful at the time? And the experiences I’ve had, the careers I’ve been in, the businesses I’ve started, sold or folded.  These things have slowly, methodically, and effectively crippled me.

I literally have hundreds of thousands of pages of information that I’ve downloaded onto my computer for future reference.  I have over seven-hundred bookmarks of websites that one day I’ll refer back to.  I have over seventy domain names for websites I’ll one day build or have built.  Who can keep up with such things?  Certainly not me.  I don’t even know half of them and forget about trying to find a document on my computer.  Not a chance.  I’ve simply created more information than my “remote control” can handle.  I bet you have too.

Which leads me to the first week of January and those pesky resolutions many of us have made.  Statistically, thirty-eight percent of us made no resolutions at all and a whopping twenty-five percent more have already failed at the ones we made.  If you made it this far you have a ninety percent chance to succeed through next week.   After the second week you’re a mere week away from the time experts tell us it takes to create a habit.  And a habit is life’s “remote control”.

And while all that is interesting, what does it have to do with the remote control?  Plenty!  You see, I (and perhaps you) don’t use the remote control or many of its buttons because we don’t understand how to.  We don’t understand how because we haven’t taken the time to learn how from someone who knows and to do it repeatedly until it becomes second nature.

Most of us with New Year’s Resolutions are entering into uncharted territory.  We’re embarking on actions and ideas in which we have no experience.  Imagine you are watching a program on television.  During the commercial break you change the channel to a different program.  Depending upon how interested you become in the new one, you will either stick with the new one or go back to the old one.  In life, by trial and error, we will either find our new “channel” or revert back to our old ones.

But here are some statistics you should know.  While it may be daunting, forty-nine percent of those who do make New Year’s Resolutions have some degree of success in positive change.  Experts say those who make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than those who do not.

And perhaps the most important point of all:  You don’t need New Year’s Day to make a resolution.  Just as you can change the channel at any time if a program is no longer of interest to you, you can resolve to change your habit channel at anytime.  Here’s what you should know.

Delaying a resolution until a future date gives you more days of engaging in the undesired behavior, making it that much more difficult to change.  Further, the emotion you feel when you decide you need to change that is essential in ensuring your success will wane over time.

You will be ten times more likely to achieve your goals when you make a resolution.  You’ll be forty-nine percent likely to achieve some measure of success when doing so.  And when you engage in a new behavior for twenty-one days, you’ll create a habit.  You will effectively change the channel of your life.

So, resolve to be different to attain your goals.  Take action for twenty-one days and switch to a new channel, creating the new habit that will put your new lifestyle on remote control.

As for me, I’ve got to get up and change the channel.


What Freedom Really Means

School is out. Many will graduate. Hot days at the pool, lake or beach, warm nights cooking out, and a well-deserved vacation. Summer, the time of freedom is here.

FreedomFreedom. Just utter the word and Americans immediately stand proud. It has a ring too it, a sweetness of sound that only a free people can understand. And as free people we know that freedom isn’t free. It comes through and with sacrifice, some on our own and some on our behalf. Someone always pays the price for freedom.

Freedom is a word we throw around a lot but when analyzed few of us know what it means. We may be able to define the word but finding it’s meaning is challenging because freedom can mean so many things. A simple search of the word returns over 396 million hits. From schools and towns named freedom to Webster’s multiple definitions, freedom is a word that has varied definitions but perhaps one uniform meaning.

Today you’ll choose what you will have for lunch, and for some, you’ll choose nothing at all. You had freedom in lunch. Lunch wasn’t free, but you had the freedom to choose if you would have lunch, what you would have for lunch, and if you would pay the price for lunch. In this example you might conclude that freedom means choice. And sometimes it does.

However, let’s say you are gluten intolerant. You are at a meeting and non-gluten free pizza is being served. Your only choice is to eat and become ill or not to eat and be hungry. You still have a choice, but is this really freedom? By any definition this example at least limits freedom. Most definitions of freedom include “without confinement, coercion, or restraint”. This is why we must find the meaning and not just the definition of the word.

As I have come to understand the meaning of freedom, the best, all-encompassing meaning is that one has control. The extent of freedom you enjoy is directly attributable to the degree of control you have in a given situation. And for the most part we enjoy a great deal of freedom.

I cringe when I hear people say (myself included) “I have to go to work.” Think of all the wrong messages in that one line we recite all too often. The sacrifice of freedom indicated in that six-word sentence is evident. “Have to” means we wouldn’t choose to if we had a choice. Is that really true? What does that say about us? Are we willing slaves to our labor? Have we build lives of quiet desperation, purchasing our confinement by our financial dependence on work we “have to” do?

Sadly for many this is the case. They head off to work they never intended to do. Somehow they landed in this job they tolerate but wouldn’t do if they had a choice. That’s the way they see it; they have no choice.

Which brings us around to the meaning of freedom. Control. Ask any of those people who go to work because they “have to” and you’ll find they truly believe they have no choice. Upon further inspection however you’ll find they have chosen the life they lead willingly, without coercion, as a better option than the unknown alternative. In this way they may not realize it but they are in control. At any moment they could, given the need, change the work they are doing or and find something else to do. If they only understood their need they would pay the price to change. But they choose not to. They are in control.

They see themselves as the fly on the windowsill. Feverishly exhausting their efforts on a task at which they will never succeed. Freedom is just beyond the glass and yet the harder they try, the closer they come to losing their freedom and their lives. If only they would turn around and see the open door behind them, if they would just fly a bit higher and find the open window, they could enjoy the freedom their work has provided.

Of course there are those among us, far too many, who have no work. While it may not seem like it, this is a great time of freedom. In this moment they have the ability to clearly choose their path. While many will take whatever they can get and fall into the cycle again, some will break free and chart a new course, find fulfilling work, or even start their own business.

For those of us who are fortunate enough to have work, we should examine the choice we make each day to engage in it. A simple shift in our attitude toward the work we do can make a huge difference in our results. Fly a bit higher, or perhaps fly in a different direction. You are in control. And that is really what freedom is all about.