Ultimately, marketing is about motivating people to take some action, so marketers take heed. Optimism trumps pessimism. Encouraging people to follow you to paradise is much more effective than, say, trying to scare them out of hell by scaring the hell out of them.
I was reminded of this yesterday when a relative forwarded one of "those emails." This particular message chronicled every misstep in the four-week-old Obama administration. The sender hoped the letter might rally me (and everyone else on the long routing list) to action. Maybe I'd call my congressman or write a scathing letter to the editor. Perhaps I'd forward the email so my dearest friends could share in the doom and despair. Instead, I slumped in my chair, paralyzed.
Pessimism depresses people. Depressed people feel helpless and hopeless. They lose their will to live, let alone the will to draft a clever note to their Senator. Pessimism makes people less able to act by creating a sense of hopelessness that makes their actions seem futile. What's more, the email made its sender seem impotent. The subliminal message was, "I'm helpless and frustrated and the only thing I can do is forward depressing emails. Join me!"
Ah, but then there's optimism.
“I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose." said Ronald Reagan as he accepted his party's nomination amid economic turmoil and voter pessimism. "The time is now, my fellow Americans, to recapture our destiny, to take it into our own hands.”
Reagan painted a glorious picture of what could be, rallied the world to action and moved mountains-- overcoming communism and ending the Cold War--nothing, it seemed, was impossible.
In your marketing and in life, shift your focus from what's wrong with today to what's possible tomorrow and you'll inspire people to join your cause.
Spread the fire. GS
Comments