Habitaciones Snoezelen o Multisensoriales

Just because you say so doesn’t make it so.

NOW BEFORE I GO ANY FURTHER, this "idea" hardly qualifies, as it is just a mistake so damned obvious that I hope you don't make it.

There are only two reasons I have the nerve to put it forward.

The first is that I see it made every day by people who ought to know better - like the world's biggest bank, for instance, slap bang in the middle of Europe's most successful shopping street.

The second is that, although seemingly a small thing, it damages something much larger and more important which I shall come to in a moment.

Here is an example of what I mean, taken with my tacky mobile phone.

So, tell me, dear reader, do YOU find your bank exciting?

Do you see it as the ideal party venue? Will you be waiting nervously There are many ways to describe banking,

but exciting probably isn’t one of them

outside the new branch just before it opens, wanting to be the first to rush in and use one of the free pens? Or do you, like most normal people, consider the opening of a new bank as interesting as a wet afternoon in the local cemetery?

My point is that the idea of a new bank being exciting is downright absurd. And that this word “exciting” - and a number of others, like fabulous and fantastic - is used on an astounding number of occasions by people who can't be bothered to think of something more appropriate.

One reason is that very few writers nowadays have a rich vocabulary, but it's too late to do much about that. What matters is to understand what words like this do - or fail to do. It is true that a little exaggeration is no bad thing in copy - but you can only stretch the truth so far.

“Free drinks and topless girls!”

If your new bank does have something special about it – free food or strippers behind the counters, perhaps - say so. If it hasn't, shut up.

You may ask why this matters.

I know I have quoted Fairfax Cone elsewhere in this series, but I make no excuse for doing so again.

When he saw bad copy he would ask the culprit: "Would you say that to someone you know?" If you wouldn't, don't foist it in the general public.

This is because by doing so abuse an essential element in the relationship between you and your prospect or customer.

That element is called trust. And by coincidence, it is the lack of this between banks which has had such a disastrous effect on all of us in recent years. But that's another story.

THINGS TO CONSIDER:

Tell the truth.

It’s easier to lose trust than get it.

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H E L P F U L I D E A 3 0 : On fashion

“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” – Oscar Wilde

Don’t be a dedicated follower of fashion.

MAYBE YOU'RE TOO OLD to remember it, but that was a big hit for The Kinks, 42 years ago.

Fashion can be fatal. But marketers are among the most dedicated followers of fashion you can imagine. The fashions they usually follow fall into the silver bullet category.

By that I mean things people think will solve all their problems overnight. One reason is that we are like sheep; where one goes, another follows.

Another is that all human beings want to believe in miracles.

You only have to study slimming fads, or stock exchange folly to realise that. But there are no miracles, and what goes up tends to come down eventually in the case of investment; though in the case of weight, the reverse usually applies.

The truth is that besides being gullible people are lazy. Marketing is hard. So any ready-packaged solution is very appealing. That is why a lot of organisations set up CRM divisions, usually before either they or the people running them had

the faintest idea what it was.

Again, when the internet took off, a ton of money was invested in some pretty unlikely projects. Then came the dotcom boom and bust, which I am quite proud to say I predicted in my book "Commonsense Direct Marketing"

- before I changed the title to "Commonsense Direct and Interactive Marketing"

“Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are

fearful.”

As usual, the world's best and funniest investor, Warren Buffett has an apt phrase. "We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful."

The latest fad to lose people a lot of money is social media. And to give you an idea of how much less effective it is than people think, here's a statistic for you relating to the 'causes' application on Facebook.

Over the last 12 months for which figures were available when I drafted this just $2.5m had been obtained in the US by 19,445 charitable organizations through Causes. That's an av-erage of just $126 per organization.

Imagine the time and effort that went into getting that $126.

The meetings. The discussions. The emails. The memos. The thinking. The ideas. The presentations.

They would have done infinitely better using direct mail or street interviews, but neither are fashionable.

Because nowadays special visual effects are so sophisticated and cheap there is a fashion among motor manufacturers to run amazingly expensive and elaborate TV spots showing cars doing impossible things – but say almost nothing coherent about the cars or why anyone should buy them.

It really is hard work to arrive at a good reason for buying car A rather than car B, so they hope special effects will do the trick.

No hope.

Three things are worth considering.

First, if everyone else is following a fashion, is it wise for you to join in?

Second, isn’t it wiser to be different rather than the same?

Third, why not determine what makes you different and better – and find the appropriate way, not the fashionable way, to tell people?

THINGS TO CONSIDER:

The world’s greatest investor knows trends can make people do stupid things.

Follow the money not the herd.

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H E L P F U L I D E A 3 1 :