What can Seinfeld teach us about marketing
What can professional stand-up comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld teach us about marketing? I recently came across an interesting article that discusses this topic. Here is a little taste:
Don’t blame the audience
“When people don’t support our ideas, or when people don’t see our way of doing things, instead of thinking that other people are too stupid to understand your brilliance, you should think, ‘I’m not doing a good enough job of explaining my ideas. I’m not doing a good enough job of convincing people that this idea is the right one.’”
Click here to read the rest of the article.
Lesson #1: In stand-up comedy, nobody counts the number of jokes a comedian tells during his onstage performance; they just remember the impression he makes. In marketing, nobody counts the number of promotions you run; they just remember the impression you make.
Lesson #2: Taste Younique. An excerpt from the article: “By several measures, Seinfeld is a terrible jokester. He doesn’t do impressions, he’s not very animated, he’s a terrible actor. “But his perspective is so unique that that’s what carries him through,” Mr. Tite says. He’s proof that a one-of-a-kind point of view can be enough to win audiences over, whether that’s a crowd in a comedy club or clients expecting a sales pitch.”
Lesson #3: Good ideas do not have to be new ideas. An excerpt from the article: “As for Bill Cosby, listen to his bits about his parents, his childhood or his brother Russell and it’s impossible not to feel a tug at your heartstrings at the same time he’s tickling your funny bone. His material, coupled with his delivery – Cosby is anything but a wisecracking ironist – allows him to make a deeply personal connection with his audience. Yes, it’s easy to make fun of those Pudding Pop commercials, but everyone likes Bill Cosby – the guy’s impossible to hate. And it’s just as true of the stage as it is for the boardroom: People will go out of their way to help out someone they like.”
P.S. By the way, one thing the article did not explain is this: Why do the drawings of the featured comedians look the way they do?