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DARE TO BE DIFFERENT? THEN SHOW IT BY YOUR ACTIONS.

Guest post by: Billy Sharma

Article Overview: One of the ways to succeed in marketing is by being different. Here's why.

Free Download - WHEN ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS OR DONORS MOST RECEPTIVE? By Billy Sharma
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DARE TO BE DIFFERENT? THEN SHOW IT BY YOUR ACTIONS.

@font-face { font-family: "Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } A vast body of knowledge and experience has been built on what works and what doesn’t in marketing and that is good.

What is bad is that most of what has worked for one client has been plagiarized to death by another so that look-alike pieces abound.

Somewhere along the line we have all become so fixated on formulas espoused by gurus that we are afraid to take a chance on something new.



And yet it was the pioneers who dared to be different who reaped the biggest rewards before the rest of the herd sheepishly mimicked them.



Good example: One of the most famous marketers, Benjamin Franklin, who published his own catalogue in the early 1700s, has been credited with incorporating the first “satisfaction guarantee” in his catalogue.



Dr. Thomas Barnado, who coined the first generic solicitation “Dear Friend” almost 120 years ago, continues to be copied even today.

More recently, Barack Obama won the election handily by employing online initiatives and new technologies using youth to raise over 500 million dollars in small contributions — need I say more?

And there’s the first person that used telephone marketing as a one-two punch to sell or raise funds, or the first face-to-face agency that helped procure millions of Pounds, and Euros in Europe. That agency started a deluge of ‘me-too’ copycats that sprang up to do the same.

Or the very first non-profit that dared to create a catalogue to sell livestock, seeds or clean water online and reaped thousands of dollars.



Gone are the days when marketers can continue to live by keeping their heads down, buried in the sand, for fear of being different. Given the plight of marketing today, such conservatism is a folly. You need the guts to try something new.

I am not advocating that marketers sink all their resources into innovations, I am suggesting that at least 5% to 10% be allocated to creating something new each year — be it a new way of segmenting or even a radically new way of marketing — or a dramatically different campaign.

The worse you can do is fail, but that’s how we all learn. The best you will do is create a stampede of followers.

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Home > Marketing > Billy Sharma > DARE TO BE DIFFERENT THEN SHOW IT BY YOUR ACTIONS >
Article Tags: barack obama, barnado, benjamin franklin, body of knowledge, cambria, copycats, dear friend, deluge, dr thomas, first person, gurus, herd, livestock, marketers, million dollars, pioneers, satisfaction guarantee, solicitation, telephone marketing, times new roman

About the Author: Billy Sharma
RSS for Billy's articles - Visit Billy's website

BILLY SHARMA Billy holds a Bachelor of Science degree and is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of J.J. School of Art (Bombay) and the Hochshüle für Gestaltung (Bauhaus School of Design, Germany). After many years of working for other companies, Billy founded Designers Inc. In 1999 he became Managing Director and Creative Director of Brann Worldwide in Toronto. Under his stewardship the agency grew three-fold in two years when Brann Worldwide was elected the number one direct marketing agency in the world in 2000. Billy has extensive advertising and direct marketing experience gained in many national and international advertising agencies in Europe, U.S. and Canada. This has honed his creative skills to help provide breakthrough creative ideas for his clients.

Click here to visit Billy's website
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