Things Marketeers can Learn from Comics

29 July 2008

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Watching ‘Batman Begins’ again just gave me inspiration for a blog post. Mot comics are filled with what we in Holland call ‘toilet tile wisdom’. And plenty of these can provide food for thought for marketeers, so I decided to write a blog post using quotes from comics and the lessons that can be learned from them by marketeers.

So, in no particular order - Things Marketeers can Learn from Comics:

Nick Fury

“Don’t get in my face boy. That ain’t a right you’ve earned.” - Astonishing X-Men #3

Who could have thought that a character played by David Hasselhoff could say anything wise!

But think permission marketing. Marketing is at its most effective when it’s permission based (among other factors, such as timely and targeted obviously). You need to earn the right to communicate with people. The era of shouting your message is over - it’s all about two way communications, baby!

Spiderman

“With great power comes great responsibility.” - Spider-Man, Amazing Fantasy #15

Marketeers have great power, they have the ability to reach mass audiences and help companies shift products and services. But like Peter Parker’s grandpa said, with that power comes responsibility. Marketeers have a responsibility to their employer to get the best possible results on time and on budget.

But maybe even more important, they have a responsibility to the people they try to communicate with. Smart marketeers understand this. Buying expensive, 30 second slots on TV used to work a treat, but its effectiveness is waining. Attention has become scarce and it is something you have to earn. Interruption marketing and push marketing are less effective by the day.

It is becoming increasingly easier for people to tune out of ads. So by treating their attention as something valuable and thus offering them something of value in return you are acting responsible and using your power in a way which will yield the greatest return on investment.

Wolverine

“Yer gonna tell me. An’ yer gonna tell me the truth ‘cause if you lie, I’ll smell it on ya. I got a nose for that kinda thing.” - Wolverine: Origins #7

If you lie, the internet has a nasty habit of finding out and letting as many people know as possible. When Jeff Jarvis wrote about his terrible experience with Dell’s customer service his story spread through the online world like wildfire. Other people read about his experience and they shared theirs and it eventually got picked up by mainstream media. It got dubbed ‘Dell Hell’. Type it into Google, you’ll get nearly 500,000 results!

At first Dell ignored the problem and waved it away as insignificant. Now, they’ve got Dell Ideastorm and Direct2Dell, a company blog. They clearly realised their mistake and looked to rectify it. Which, to their credit, they have done - the public opinion of the company has improved dramatically.

The lesson is simple, don’t lie, cheat or scam people. They will find out and they will share their negative story with others. And thanks to the internet there is a whole lot of people to share things with!

Batman

“It’s not who you say you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you.” - Rachel Dawes, Batman Begins

Making things sound pretty is easy, actually making them pretty is far more difficult. Simply telling people you are the best is no longer working. Thanks to the information democracy we live in and the tools the internet, for example, provides its far easier for people to cut the chaff from the weed.

Don’t say you are the best, be the best. Or as Seth Godin puts it, be remarkable - be a purple cow.

So, that’s a few of the lessons I have managed to detract from comics. Did I miss any other obvious ones?