The secret to increasing influence? Probably more than one. But one good one to consider? Use analogies to improve marketing influence. In your stories. In demonstrations.
Lots of ways to use analogies.
Marketers tend to like big, bold actions that grab attention and spew off metrics and the March on Washington would definitely qualify as that. Yet, all too often, we ignore the more mundane work that comes before. To market a product or an idea, you have to change minds and that’s the real lesson of the Civil Rights Movement. Marketers need to learn from it.
Here is a good story to illustrate. In 1865, Gregor Mendel published the paper that established him as the father of genetics. However, it went largely unnoticed until it was rediscovered decades later and became widely recognized as one of the great discoveries in the history of science. Why do some ideas quickly spread far and wide while others go nowhere at all?
Here is a great story that we’ll share to illustrate our point:
A philosophy professor stood before his class with some items on the table in front of him. When the class began, without any words he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar. He then proceeded to fill it with small rocks, about 2 inches in diameter.
He then asked the class if the jar was full. They agreed that it was indeed full.
The Professor then picked up a box of small pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.
He then again asked the class if the jar was full. They nodded in agreement.
The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. The sand, of course, filled up all the remaining space in the jar.
He then asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “yes”.
“Now”, said the professor, “I want you to assume that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things – your family, your wife and marriage, your children, and your health – things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. He could use analogies, yes?
The pebbles are the other things that have priority in your life – like your job, your house, your car.
The sand is everything else. The small stuff. Your lowest priority.”
“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same can be said for your life.
If you spend all your time and energy on your lowest priorities, the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are most important to you.
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Now while you can take your wife out to dinner and a movie.
There will always be time to go to work, clean and maintain the house, entertain your friends, and enjoy your hobbies.
Take care of the rocks first, your life’s foundation. The things that really matter. Set your top priorities and stick to them. The rest is just sand.
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple … well, that can influence!
So, what is your opinion of the use of analogies to increase influence? Does it ring true to you? Do you have experience in other ways to increase your influence to share with this community?
The bottom line
Leonardo Da Vinci’s life as a creative thinker provides inspiration and lessons to learn for individuals and companies working in the creative sector.
The lessons above have a direct relationship with the design and innovation process inside companies. Also, they are linked with different creative thinking and problem-solving tools and methods which can be implemented to connect between different patterns to reach creative ideas and solutions. Do you see?
Very, very few of Da Vinci’s abilities are in the populace. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn to be creative … it can be learned. Can you use these lessons to learn to see or see better? Give it a try. Practice and be persistent. Stick with it, and over the long haul, you will see some good dividends.
What will have to change is the marketing mindset. The fundamental questions in the coming years will not be how to deploy this or that new technology, but how to can solve fundamental marketing problems, such as how to earn consumers’ trust and how to create experiences that are more impactful, useful, productive, and beneficial.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Why you ask? Remembering marketing messages well is often difficult. Why you ask? It is because these words aren’t usually anchored to anything in our experience. Analogies steer these adrift ideas.
But analogies are also hard to construct. They’re a creative act, so there’s no step-by-step which will produce them reliably.
Their formation also depends on the powerful insight they are trying to generate. Therefore, a good analogy is often difficult to make when it is needed most.
So to give you a hand, I will share my thoughts on what makes an analogy good. Then, more importantly, I’d like to share some ideas I’ve found to help create them.
What is a good analogy?
A good analogy is a compromise between two conflicting points of views: familiarity and representativeness.
Good analogies need to be familiar to be most effective. They express an abstract thought regarding a familiar one. The odometer and speedometer on a car are a good analogy for a function and its derivative. This is probably because we all understand how speedometers work, but probably not the calculus.
Concrete experiences are good sources for analogies because they can be appreciated by anyone. When I say my friend was as quiet as a mouse, that is helpful. That is because you rarely if ever hear a mouse, do you?
But a good analogy doesn’t need to be concrete. It only needs to be expressed regarding an idea you already know well.
That latter fact is important when creating analogies for yourself. Concreteness is good. But remember, as long as you understand the analogous domain well, anything can work.
For example, we compare life to like a box of chocolates. We know a box of chocolates has many varieties. We can use the varieties to our advantage.
Good analogies are also representative. They match at least some of the features of the idea you’re trying to explain.
More games mean the analogy has more inherent power. Fewer means you need to be careful about applying the analogy to understand new situations.
Making new analogies is like making a key for a lock you haven’t seen before. You’re limited by your experience as to what kind of keys you can make. New key designs take a lot longer to learn than borrowing old ones.
But you also want the key to fit the lock. If the critical shape deviates too much, it won’t open the lock. That’s representativeness.
Marketing messages … how to create analogies
Good analogies are a lot like inventions, aren’t they? You can learn some rules to help dream them up. Ultimately it’s a creative act and can’t be entirely controlled.
Like inventions, the best analogies aren’t invented wholesale but are often built upon the work of others. When you’re learning something abstract, first try to look for other analogies people have generated.
If you can’t find one, you’ll have to create one. Not as easy as borrowing, but there are a few steps to make it easier:
Winning marketing messages … distil your message to the basics and find connections
One exercise you can use to strengthen your analogy skills is to describe what your brand does in as few words as possible.
Then review those words or phrases and see if any similar stories or examples come to mind.
Marketing message patterns … use trends as the starting point
If you see an opportunity to make a natural connection between your industry and something that is being talked about in the news today, go for it.
For example, you could play off of themes found in popular movies or television shows. Look for ones that parallel the brand story you are trying to tell, like in this post on How Apple’s story is like ‘Breaking Bad.’
Marketing messages examples … choose analogies that reflect great imagery
If your analogy has some great images associated with it, don’t be afraid to milk them for all they are worth. Use those images throughout your brand presence.
Is your bank like a mama bird, protecting your customer’s nest eggs? Fighting off market fluctuations that threaten their security?
If so, then create an image of a bird mascot that shows us that process. Or maybe creates a video that transposes images of how this occurs in nature and how you artificially mimic it.
Effective marketing messages … gather examples
Types of marketing messages.
Examples are easier than making imaginative analogies which hop domains. In some areas, they may even be better.
I always found philosophy to be more amenable to examples than more cosmopolitan topics. Topics which travel beyond their native subject.
Sometimes the analogy is a case. Speedometers aren’t just an analogy of derivatives; that’s what they are!
Nothing will be more representative of an idea than an example of the design itself.
Even if you desire a more creative hook to hang your thoughts, examples become a gateway. Gateways to more original understandings.
Find familiar experiences
Look for a setting or everyday experiences where you might be able to generate one. There are some settings/ experiences for discovering analogies than others.
Here is an excellent example of using familiar experiences. Do you recall watching a quarterback being ‘blindsided’ by an opposing linebacker? Never saw it coming, did he?
That is the analogy Terry Bradshaw uses in describing his case of Shingles.
Watch him use the analogy in this commercial. Quite useful, isn’t it?
Terry Bradshaw talks Shingles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSI2AZQmEsU
Compare and contrast
No analogy is entirely representative unless it is the idea itself. Even examples fail to generalize perfectly, which is why we have abstractions in the first place.
One way around this is to examine the metaphor more closely. Where does it match the idea? Where does it not?
Just doing this exercise will improve your understanding, even if you don’t modify your analogy as a result.
Takeaways
It is always useful to appreciate good analogies like art or inventions. An analogy compromises between familiarity and representativeness. With good analogies choosing just the right amount of the context is the way to design winners.
The best analogies not only explain, but they also inspire. They pour color into a featureless void and breathe life into something static.
They make the entire subject they cover more beautiful and exciting. Good analogies aren’t just tools; they’re art.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential clients?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improve your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
