Outside the box
The other day, I asked a friend what they thought their greatest accomplishment was.
As usual, he came back with a witty response that I didn’t expect (even though I should have), “I raised two kids to the age of 18 and didn’t kill them.”
He asked me, and I came back with “I’ve been married for 20 years and haven’t killed her yet.”
All joking aside, this brief discussion triggered in me the though of “what IS my greatest accomplishment?”
Personally, it’s that I am sober now for over 30 years.
Professionally, it’s that I haven’t changed who I am to become what someone else expects me to be.
What do I mean by that?
Simple. I learned early on that I see things differently than other marketers. I think “outside the box”.
Companies that hired me benefited from that.
Companies that were scared of that, didn’t hire me. They wanted same ol’ same ol’.
And that’s where I’m going with this post.
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For decades, when companies asked me to come work for them, or I interviewed with them, I always said this to them:
“If you are looking for someone who you want to maintain the status quo, like, gain .01% market share, such as Coke over Pepsi, than, I’m not the person for you. That is not me, nor do you want someone like me, as I will either gain you 10% growth or 10% loss. My thinking is not for a company that is happy with where it’s at. I am a true outside the box thinker and do things that are not typical. If you want growth, in huge numbers, hire me. Otherwise, please go hire that Duke MBA grad that is too scared to do anything more than what they were taught in textbooks.”
Fortunately, I have been passed over by many companies who didn’t want that growth. And those that did want that growth, they got it, and then some!
Which leads to: Dylan Mulvaney & Alissa Heinerscheid.
Ms. Heinerscheid coopted Mr. Mulvaney into a marketing campaign that, of course, will be studied by marketers for the next century.
And here’s where I’m going with this post. Ms. Heinersheid said, when she was hired, that she was going to move Bud Light from being a “frat boy” beer to something else.
I would’ve said, at the time, “Yay, another marketer that thinks outside the box!”
And of course, I would have thought ‘I hope that she does all the appropriate background education needed to make sure that she doesn’t lose her existing base, because it’s nice to have a huge market share and be a leader. To risk that, you better have your T’s crossed and I’s dotted.’
Obviously she didn’t. I would love to see her business case that she put together in what the growth expectations were in approaching a marketing campaign such as this.
Unfortunately, with the woke culture taking over corporations so much, did Ms. Heinerscheid rely on her “feelings” over “facts” in making the marketing decisions? Did all her research show that the market was unwilling to accept a campaign like this, but she had “feelings” that said differently?
There are so many questions, and so many opinions about this campaign. But, like I have written about previously, woke politics has a minor place to play in marketing, not major. With only 3% of the country embracing woke politics and policies, that leaves a huge percentage of the market that could easily be turned off — as was the case here.
Thinking outside the box is great! I teach this in all my classes. The more the better. Be different. Be unique. Stand out! But above everything else, don’t burn your market — by doing so, you may never get them back.
As for not killing the kids or wife — my friend and I both approach life thinking outside the box. By keeping our families activies fresh and doing different things (i.e. not falling into a rut), our personal marketing campaigns are always unique and fun — just like our professional marketing campaigns.
