OUTLAW MARKETING
You can never make everyone happy. No matter what you do, no matter what you accomplish in life there are always going to be people who do not like you. And those people are going to say all manner of nasty things about you. I remember one time about 11 years when a television preacher held up a copy of one of my books on Channel 38 in Chicago, which was the xtian station at that time, and said, "If the author of this book isn't an agent of the Antichrist I don't know who is!"
Well, of course I was offended. Only the AGENT????? I want top billing you moron!
But the beauty of this incident that I sold a bunch of books to people who otherwise might never have heard of me, but were convinced that if that religious fool disliked the book it must be a damned good read, which of course it was. I had, quite innocently, entered the world of Outlaw Marketing.
Now Outlaw Marketing is a very simple idea in theory. It is based on a line from Franklin Roosevelt (no, not the silly one about days living in infamy) which goes, "It is good to be hated by the hated." In other words, if you can get someone to really attack you, all the people who dislike the person or group doing the attacking will be more inclined to buy your product. And if you do it right, you can make folks who dislike you look really bad at the same time.
This technique has been used extremely successfully by Calvin Kline, who would create ads that would offend blue-haired old ladies. They would get all upset and create lots of media attention for an ad that otherwise would have a very limited audience. Calvin Kline would get a ton of free PR and not lose a single sale, because the old biddies were never the market for that product in the first place so who the hell cared what they thought?
The same thing happened to me. My market could not care less what a television preacher thought about anything and his condemnation was a point in my favor. So, how do you use this marvelous tool divinely appointed for our continued prosperity?
First, create either a product or means of marketing with will offend those who are not inclined to buy it in the first place.
Second, lay a trap. Create a situation where your mark will learn of the product or the advertising campaign and will be sufficiently offended as to take umbrage and attack you or it.
At that point you let them do all the work. They will sputter and fume and be all upset and have their blood pressure rising to the boiling point, but all they will do is give you more exposure to the people whom you really want to learn about you and your product.
Now, there are a couple of rules to follow when this occurs.
First, never, ever apologize. If possible totally ignore the protests and let them burn themselves out.
Second, if you cannot ignore the protesters, do not give them anything but the back of your hand. If they persist in their attacks on you and it seems to have any effect, counter-attack. Call them neo-nazis or something equivalent and imply that they are insane. (of course if they really are insane that makes it even easier) Do not feel their pain, increase it! This will solidify your own base of support and make you look courageous in face of would-be censors (and if you can catch one in an actual act of censorship you have them because now you can call on a media lynch mob to go after them). This is important. The greatest mistake O.J. Simpson's defenders made was in not having his supporters engaged in daily vilification of the Brown and Goldman families, stating that they were nothing but greedy slime seeking to use the deaths of their loved ones to enrich themselves at the expense of an innocent man while subtly implying that they were the real murderers. (It does not have to be true, merely believable.) Rush Limbaugh, on the contrary, virtually silenced his opponents by simply coining the term, "Feminazi." And we all learned a tremendous lesson in the masterful way the Clinton team demolished the reputation and career of Ken Starr, who went from a respected jurist to a national pariah and laughing stock and the long arm of the law got stuffed and mounted on the Lincoln Bedroom Wall.
Follow this and your success is assured. As for the others, "Let those who have ears, let them hear."
You can never make everyone happy. No matter what you do, no matter what you accomplish in life there are always going to be people who do not like you. And those people are going to say all manner of nasty things about you. I remember one time about 11 years when a television preacher held up a copy of one of my books on Channel 38 in Chicago, which was the xtian station at that time, and said, "If the author of this book isn't an agent of the Antichrist I don't know who is!"
Well, of course I was offended. Only the AGENT????? I want top billing you moron!
But the beauty of this incident that I sold a bunch of books to people who otherwise might never have heard of me, but were convinced that if that religious fool disliked the book it must be a damned good read, which of course it was. I had, quite innocently, entered the world of Outlaw Marketing.
Now Outlaw Marketing is a very simple idea in theory. It is based on a line from Franklin Roosevelt (no, not the silly one about days living in infamy) which goes, "It is good to be hated by the hated." In other words, if you can get someone to really attack you, all the people who dislike the person or group doing the attacking will be more inclined to buy your product. And if you do it right, you can make folks who dislike you look really bad at the same time.
This technique has been used extremely successfully by Calvin Kline, who would create ads that would offend blue-haired old ladies. They would get all upset and create lots of media attention for an ad that otherwise would have a very limited audience. Calvin Kline would get a ton of free PR and not lose a single sale, because the old biddies were never the market for that product in the first place so who the hell cared what they thought?
The same thing happened to me. My market could not care less what a television preacher thought about anything and his condemnation was a point in my favor. So, how do you use this marvelous tool divinely appointed for our continued prosperity?
First, create either a product or means of marketing with will offend those who are not inclined to buy it in the first place.
Second, lay a trap. Create a situation where your mark will learn of the product or the advertising campaign and will be sufficiently offended as to take umbrage and attack you or it.
At that point you let them do all the work. They will sputter and fume and be all upset and have their blood pressure rising to the boiling point, but all they will do is give you more exposure to the people whom you really want to learn about you and your product.
Now, there are a couple of rules to follow when this occurs.
First, never, ever apologize. If possible totally ignore the protests and let them burn themselves out.
Second, if you cannot ignore the protesters, do not give them anything but the back of your hand. If they persist in their attacks on you and it seems to have any effect, counter-attack. Call them neo-nazis or something equivalent and imply that they are insane. (of course if they really are insane that makes it even easier) Do not feel their pain, increase it! This will solidify your own base of support and make you look courageous in face of would-be censors (and if you can catch one in an actual act of censorship you have them because now you can call on a media lynch mob to go after them). This is important. The greatest mistake O.J. Simpson's defenders made was in not having his supporters engaged in daily vilification of the Brown and Goldman families, stating that they were nothing but greedy slime seeking to use the deaths of their loved ones to enrich themselves at the expense of an innocent man while subtly implying that they were the real murderers. (It does not have to be true, merely believable.) Rush Limbaugh, on the contrary, virtually silenced his opponents by simply coining the term, "Feminazi." And we all learned a tremendous lesson in the masterful way the Clinton team demolished the reputation and career of Ken Starr, who went from a respected jurist to a national pariah and laughing stock and the long arm of the law got stuffed and mounted on the Lincoln Bedroom Wall.
Follow this and your success is assured. As for the others, "Let those who have ears, let them hear."