There's a 15-word marketing mantra that's covered in Marketing 101, that you need to know. It's: By
time you're sick of it,
public is just beginning to get it.HOW THIS WORKS
I was in marketing for years before becoming a coach, and went through this process many times.
At a church I marketed, we started a campaign to educate
congregation about
concept of stewardship, as a way to raise donations, but also stewardship in terms of oceans, forests, intelligence, and other "free" gifts.
Every week for 104 weeks I wrote a lead article about stewardship. It was a challenge to make it new. Some mornings I would put my head down on
computer in desperation, I was so bored with
whole topic myself.
After about 9 months, donations began to increase, and continued to climb steadily. Nine months, you'll find, is a "magic timeframe" in bringing ideas to birth, as it is in human life!
This is one reason why you have to trust your own marketing, and/or your marketing coach, and stay on-task. Things germinate for months and then "suddenly " happen, like
C&W singer who becomes an "overnight sensation" after waiting tables and knocking on doors for 15 years. Most stars have a story to tell like that.
There's always hard work and determination behind
"instant successes."
With marketing, you come up with one clear concept you want to get across - branding if you will - and then you hammer away at it, over and over.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE
When I was
Fundraiser for a homeless shelter,
message we wanted to get across was that when you volunteered or gave money, there were great benefits to you as well.
Over and over
same message went out. Taglines, slogans, articles, demonstrative photos, testimonials.
After that same period, things began to happen. Volunteerism went up, donations went up. The message had come across.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Now as a coach, I set out to brand myself as The EQ Coach. After writing articles about it for over a year, "suddenly" it's popped. People are emailing me to find about it, to license products, and to get coaching.
At
same time,
field is becoming known to
general public. 18 months ago, I sent a press release about EQ and
reporter wrote back and wanted to know what on earth that meant. He'd never heard of it. Since then, there have been new books released, new research, a noted movie producer started an educational foundation based on EQ, and it appears regularly on
Internet, radio, etc.
Part of emotional intelligence is Optimism, and you'll recall a recent segment on
national news about
health benefits of Optimism from lead researcher, Martin Seligman, Ph.D.