SD#19: Product weaknesses, deliberate practice and talking to strangers
May 22, 2022
Hi friends,
Welcome to another edition of Seven Dawns, your weekly newsletter on marketing, productivity, psychology and more. As the newsletter is still in it’s infancy I will experiment with the way I send you ideas. Do let me know if you like or dislike something you see.
Our seven ideas this week:
1. (Marketing) Marketing product weaknesses do not take away the strengths, they inform them Every August Lithuania celebrates the catholic celebration of the assumption of Mary. It’s a joyful celebration with singing, dancing, beautiful weather and the quest to find a four-leaf clover. If you find it, you’re guaranteed a happy year ahead. But it is no easy task as there aren’t that many clovers of such kind I tell you (the chance of finding one is 5000 to 1). Once you find one, a moment of bliss shivers down your body as if you found perfection. That was it, all you needed. We like to embark on quests for perfection in our day-to-day too. Whether we’re working on a presentation or a project we’re building or an email we’re crafting or a product we’re making. But barely anything is perfect. And on most occasions being imperfect can be much better. In fact, imperfection can sometimes bolster our product. Brands who openly use the disadvantages of their product will be seen as more trustworthy. So the next time you try to instil perfection into your marketing copy, instead look for the three-leaf clover and praise the lack of the fourth leaf. |
2. (Productivity) Instead of mindlessly practicing a skill for months, being deliberate can result in better performance Becoming an expert at a particular skill has more to do with the quality of the practice than with talent. Instead of merely practising a skill a large number of times—and blaming a lack of talent when that strategy does not result in clear improvements—deliberate practice consists in continually practising a skill with the conscious intention of mastering it. Deliberate practice requires to be able to fail like a scientist to build a learning loop. Many of the most successful people in their fields have internalised this iterative approach to mastery. Nesslabs |
3. (Psychology) One negative event can taint an overall good day Have you ever found yourself ruminating over a mistake you made a while ago? Replaying in your head a conversation that didn’t go so well? That’s the negativity bias at play: not only do we register negative stimuli more readily, but we also tend to dwell on these events for longer. In general, negative events have a bigger impact on our mental state than positive ones. While the negativity bias used to be a useful survival mechanism, it has a powerful—and often unconscious—impact on the way we behave, think, and build relationships. Nesslabs |
4. (Marketing) There are many ways to achieve fame. Advertising is the only one you can buy your way into There’s been a lot of talk about targeting and reach in the last decade of marketing, mostly due to the work of Byron Sharp and Mark Ritson. The two have gone head-to-head to argue for one or the other and while the on-stage battles are sometimes won by Mark, the overall principles of reach seem to have the higher ground empirically (and Mark has admitted it). Thus, many marketing departments over the globe have shifted their efforts to achieve the highest possible reach lately and the easiest way to do that is through fame. It’s important to remember what we’re trying to achieve, per Bob Hoffman’s words “the most fundamental objective of brand marketing is to achieve fame. Fame is an unequalled business advantage.” And “advertising is the most expensive, but most reliable way to achieve fame. There are many ways to achieve fame. Advertising is the only one you can buy your way into.” |
5. (Psychology) Talking to strangers has a surprising positive benefit to our wellbeing There is a growing body of research suggesting that engaging with and trusting people we don’t know is important for our well-being and the well-being of those we encounter as well as the health of society. For example, friendly behaviour toward strangers has been linked to higher self-esteem in teenagers in the United States. In China, greater trust in strangers has been linked to better overall health. And in Canada, trust in strangers has also been correlated to individual wellbeing. BBC |
6. (Business) Thinking inside the box can be just as useful for innovation Imagine that you were asked to invent an idea for a new business in the next 20 minutes. The task is so broad and vague that you would probably think you couldn’t do it. Instead, let’s consider a narrower question: What do Rollerblades, Häagen-Dazs ice cream, and Spider-Man movies have in common? The answer is they are all based on the same business concept. In each case, a firm has taken something children love and reproduced it in an extreme, more expensive form for adults. The same notion has led to over 25 new product categories, including gourmet jelly beans, baseball fantasy camps, $200 sneakers, 20-foot-high sandcastles for corporate parties, paintball, space tourism, and Disney collectables. Harvard Business Review |
7. (Marketing) People will pay more for brands they think are different There’s a certain magic about being different. We as humans are at a constant juxtaposition between conforming to what others are doing versus doing something that seems a bit rebellious and different. We will look for cues in social settings to see what others are doing and base our purchasing decisions on that. On the next day, we will find the most bizarre-looking t-shirt and buy it simply because we think no one else would wear such wickedness. Apple is a great example of someone that built their business on this. They positioned themselves as a challenger brand to Microsoft, one that is different and people liked that. More than liked it, they were willing to pay significantly more to have it. If you’re going after the same target audience as your main competitors and market leaders, then you will be competing for attention and headspace with them. If you position yourself different, suddenly you’re the only brand that is speaking to a certain group of people and they will gladly pay more for that. |
Fun things to click on:
An illustrative list of tactics in pricing psychology. An inspiring letter from Steve Albini to Nirvana explaining his philosophy before they worked together on In Utero. The case for taking naps, even at work.
Thanks for reading! If you have any learnings you’d like to share with me, or disagree with any of the ones above then do drop me a message.
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Speak soon,
Tom