Being Strange Is Not Always Wrong

Too Weird Is Not Marketable Enough

There is nothing wrong with being strange.  There is nothing wrong with being unique.  There is nothing wrong with being weird.  Unique and weird sells well in most marketplaces.  Unique is good.  Weird is good but too weird is too much, however.  There is a line that is drawn by the consumer.  They will love to participate in unique methods of operations.  They will also participate in weird marketing up to a point.  Once that level of weirdness has been reached, no more.  The consumer will exit and they will exit fast.

The mass market is where you want to be.  You want your business model to service the critical mass.  That is where the lions share of the market lives.  Be courageous enough to attract that market but do it in your unique way.  Find out how to paint your model into a pattern of operations that will attract the masses but in your unique way.

One more thing, you also need to separate yourself away from all of your competition.  You will need to learn how to stand out among the crowd of competitors.  That is why uniqueness is so important.  That is also why being a bit weird is not always a bad thing to be when you are trying to stand out in the sea of competition.  I like to advise that a business model become creative enough to almost reach the edge of weirdness.  I like to operate my models next to that edge.  It attracts some nice attention.  Moving a bit closer to a simple level of consistent weirdness is an easy way to become more unique.  It will help your business model become more recognizable.  When you are recognizable, your business model has a better chance to attract more people.

I try to mentally manage my effort to this type of marketing in a numbered fashion.  I like to keep my models a bit strange, a little bit different than all of the others.  I always spend time to check out the other competitors but I will try to remain slightly away from the main stuff that they do.  I might develop a little weirdness that can be added to my marketing ways.  I like to suggest that other business models do the same kind of thing.  Learn how to become a little bit of an artist.  Learn how to paint your marketing ways like a singer would develop their own sound.  When you hear Elton John sing, you know it is Elton John.  When you hear Michael Jackson's music you know it is Michael singing.  When you hear a Johnny Cash song you know it is Johnny Cash.  When you hear Elvis Presley sing, you know who is singing.  They made their trademark ways recognizable.  They market themselves well in this fashion.

Many new singers do not do this kind of marketing quite as well.  That is why many of the new performers get lost in the sea of singing competitors.  We do not immediately recognize them.  We cannot take possession of knowing them.  We cannot easily become their best supporters.  We cannot easily become included in their efforts to develop a wave of popularity.  It makes it difficult for us to belong.  All we want to do is belong.  As consumers, we need to be able to recognize who we want to support.  We need to recognize where we want to belong.

This is simple stuff to discuss but much harder to achieve.  I like to work closer to the side of weirdness to make this kind of marketing process happen more easily.  Maybe we should open up the doors of strangeness just a little bit more than we might usually do.  Maybe we should experiment with trying out some weirdness ways.  Let's keep that weirdness marketing effort somewhere around 20% of what we do.  Let's market this level of weirdness in a numbered fashion.  Let's suggest that we become 20% weird.  Let's make that numbered effort to include the level of weirdness and the volume of weirdness.  These are two completely different registers to monitor.  The level of weirdness refers to the depth of the actions.  The volume of weirdness refers to how often you repeat those actions.  These are two completely different things.

If weird words are used, let's make sure they are only 20% weird.  For example...sycloeoptomy is a weird word.  But so is sycophantic.  Sycophantic is not quite as weird.  It is only 20% weird.  Go with the 20% weird versions of what you plan to market.  Do not go all of the way weird.  It is too much for any market to absorb.  You will scare them all away.  You want to attract the masses, not scare away the multiples.  become unique to a point.  Stay closer to the 20% edge.  Do some weird stuff, but not too much.  Keep your feet on the ground and stay mostly normal.  Edgy is not wrong marketing, to a point.  Remain level on this effort.  Elton John had those interesting sun shade glasses and strange outfits.  Elvis did his hip movements, hair flip and smirk-like smile.  Michael had his glove and Johnny Cash was always seen in black!  They had their strange quirkiness embedded into their marketing ways.  Become comfortable with doing about 20% of this kind of work in your marketing ways.  Develop some set of strange trademarks that can become recognized by your customers.  It is not wrong to perform marketing in this fashion.

Let's look at the depth of the level of weirdness you plan to employ.

Control How Weird You Become

First of all, this is where the consumer will judge your actions the most.  This is where they will determine if they support your business or not.  That is why it is crucial that you do not become so weird that you scare consumers away.  That would be foolish.  Unfortunately, my career has been made by the work I do with correcting the foolish things business leaders have done.  I witness foolish a lot in my business walk.  It is littered all over the trail of many business models.  I have made my business career from doing the work of fixing what stupidity has permitted, developed and where it has often occurred.  Since 1995 the lions share of my business work has been working on the models that other leaders have almost certainly destroyed.  I often find myself mopping up too much weirdness.  Too much weirdness begins to look a lot like stupidity.  Be careful.

The swoosh in the Nike logo was once introduced as a weird piece of an artful symbol.  It was weird.  It had no original significance that was identifiable to the consumer public.  It never looked like Nike until now. Now that logo represents Nike every time someone sees it.  It was once weird, but not too weird to be accepted.  Used properly, it has become the icon of recognition for the success that company has developed.  Weird works if it is not too weird.  Be very careful in how you manage where you want to become weird.  I suggest that you remain under the 20% level of weird introductions...both in the level of weirdness you introduce and the volume of weirdness you pile on.  Do these weird things with scheduled and planned limitations.  Be careful about how you manage weird stuff you allow.

I have repaired a lot of business models that did not limit how they managed their weird ways.  I have witnessed these same models fail to notice how much damage they were doing to their consumer attraction policies.  Some still remain blind to this effect.  It is disturbing to watch business leaders perform stupidity marketing.  I like a certain dose of weirdness in my marketing ways.  It stands somewhere close to artful respect, however.  I have discovered that most consumers like being around some interesting methods, marketing and policies.  Most consumers will honor some strange ways business models operate.  It can be useful to offer a certain level of weird play to the consumer market.  It can help separate a business model away from the common crowd of competition.  Just remain very careful when you select how weird you plan to be.  Stay under the 20% level of weird choices.  Keep at least 80% of your operations as solid and predictable as you can.  Consumers also like stability.  They like to be able to count on a few things.  Make sure your business model provides that kind of satisfaction for them.  This is crucial stuff.  Treat it like crucial stuff.

Once you find weird stuff that works well, limit how much you repeat it.  Again, stay under the 20% rule of volume.  If you find something weird that works well in your marketing ways, do not immediately flood your customers with that weird set of conditions.  Place a governor on the volume of that weirdness you discovered that works.  Stay under control with how much weirdness you permit to run.  I like to suggest to business leaders who like doing weird stuff to keep their level of weirdness under 20% and to control that weirdness in volume so that it never exceeds 20% of what they do.  Manage your weirdness.  Do not eliminate it, just mange it better.  It is alright to have a certain amount of weirdness planned for your business model.  Just remain in full control of how weird and how much you permit.

If you lose control of how weird your model performs, it may look funny or interesting until the checkbook screams out loud that it needs more cash!  That is when weird becomes too much.  Your consumers will determine when you have gotten too weird.  Your checkbook will scream when that happens.  It will yell at you loud and clear.  Remain under the 20% bar of allowances.  This way you can satisfy your needs to be creative and at the same time, increase your consumer support.  There is a limit that must be discovered and respected.  Stay weird, but remain under control with it.  I like weird, to a point.

Until next time...