22 Immutable Laws of Marketing #16 The Law of Singularity

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10118571.post-45119402509604712742008-04-24T20:58:00.000-07:002008-04-24T21:25:14.516-07:0022 Immutable Laws of Marketing #16 The Law of SingularityLaw #16 of the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Trout and Ries states: #16 The Law of Singularity - In each situation, only one move will produce substantial results. This law could be called the law of the Bold Stroke or the Law of the Silver Bullet The idea is that there is a single, most successful, bold stroke that must do to move yourself out in front of the pack and achieve substantial results. This might be a little hard to grasp. Oftentimes we all believe that a good mix of different marketing strategies will get us the results we want. A little advertising here, a couple of webinars there, each executed well will win the day. Nope, not according to this law. Each of your competitors is doing the same thing. A little here a little there. If you are bigger than they are you are probably giving them the opportunity to match your efforts, just a little smaller in size, which means that you really aren't gaining much of an advantage. Let me give you an example from my own experience. Bold Stroke At BrainShare In February of 2003 I came on as GWAVA's VP of Marketing and was immediately put in charge of putting together the marketing effort for BrainShare...which was in 3 weeks. I had 22 days to get ready for the event. With that short amount of time I didn't have time to do the regular stuff like I probably would have. You know, put together fliers, do a pre-event mailing, put an ad in the magazine, and have a bowl for people to drop in their business cards to win a cell phone. Instead, I sat down and looked my goal. How to DRAMATICALLY increase the number of people coming to my booth so that I could capture the maximum amount of names. And how to do it without breaking the bank on marketing budget. I realized that the best way would be to give away something BIG. That first year I gave away a trip for two on a Caribbean Cruise, as well as giving away $1,000 in gold coins. The theme for BrainShare that year was Pirates so these giveaways fit perfectly. But, to make it even bigger, I didn't just make it my event, I made it the event for a dozen other vendors. I invited them to participate as well. The goal was for them to help spread the word about the giveaway. They benefited because they got to have more traffic with a bigger giveaway and I benefited for the same reason. It was one of those single bold strokes that continues to deliver results today. Novell's Boldest Stroke EVER Novell understands this law of marketing as well. When Ron Hosvepian took over the reigns of Novell he was faced with the task of figuring out what to do to. How to compete in a tough market and how to differentiate Novell from everyone else. Like a General from WWII, he studied the battleground and came up with a bold plan. A single stroke that would stun the technology world. The french proverb made famous by Patton says it well "Audacity, Audacity, Always Audacity" Novell's bold stroke, its single move that has delivered the greatest results has been its decision to form an alliance partnership with Microsoft. This is the Law of Singularity in action. No other action that Novell could have done would have delivered the same results. No amount of trying harder would have lifted Novell in one move to becoming the contending leader in the Linux Enterprise space. Business-Driven Linux is the path Novell is taking and this was a perfect example of that. Your own bold stroke Look at your own situation. See if there is a single bold stroke that you can do with your organization that would lift it up past your competitors and set you apart. I'm sure it is there. If you want to talk to me about your ideas, drop me an email and I'm more than happy to see what you've got. Richard BlissRichard Blisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06711443052326619281noreply@blogger.com