Meet the MasterMinds: Jay Conrad Levinson, Guerrilla Marketing
Guru
 Jay
Conrad Levinson is the author of the best selling marketing
series in history, Guerrilla Marketing, and
28 other business books. His books appear in 37 languages
and are required reading for MBA courses worldwide.
Levinson is a former vice president and creative
director at J. Walter Thompson Advertising and Leo Burnett
Advertising. He is now the Chairman of Guerrilla Marketing
International, a consulting firm serving large and small
businesses around the globe, and a marketing partner with
Adobe and Apple Computer.
He has written a monthly column for Entrepreneur
Magazine, articles for Inc. Magazine,
and on-line columns for Microsoft, Netscape and AOL.
In his most recent book, Guerrilla Creativity,
Levinson shows you how to apply creativity to marketing--the
guerrilla way. MCNews talked with Levinson about how management
consultants can accelerate their marketing results using
the creative strategies in the book, including a leading-edge
concept called a "meme."
* * * * *
MCNews: What is guerrilla creativity?
Levinson: Guerrilla creativity combines
art, the science of human behavior and business sense to
create good marketing--strategies that will generate
enough confidence and trust that people will have good reason
to buy your product or service. It drives marketing strategies
to their goal.
Too much of marketing today is created to
win awards or to dazzle the beholder with cleverness. Guerrilla
creativity works to inform rather than entertain. Creative
marketing instills a positive image of you and your services
in the minds of your prospective customers or clients, and
motivates them to buy from you.
MCNews: One of your ten insights for marketing
creativity is about demonstrating your benefit in a memorable
way. What's the best way to do that?
Levinson: Well, it goes without saying
that you want your prospects to remember your name, but
you also want them to remember what makes you special. What
do all your prospects have in common? Imagination. So, the
best way to help people recall who you are and why they
want what you've got is to create something that appeals
to that imagination. A meme is the perfect way to accomplish
that.
MCNews: You've described the meme as a
powerful marketing advance, a new weapon. What exactly is
a meme, and why do you think this concept is so important?
Levinson: A meme is a self-explanatory
symbol, word or combination that immediately communicates
an entire idea. A meme is capable of breaking through
today's sensory overload. Used in marketing, a meme can
propel profits to new heights.
The concept of a meme--it rhymes with cream,
by the way--was first developed by Oxford University Biologist,
Richard Dawkins, in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene.
He coined the noun meme to describe a unit of cultural information
that is transmitted from one mind to another. The dictionary
defines a meme as a self-replicating element of culture,
passed on by imitation.
MCNews: Can you give us an example of a
meme?
Levinson: Sure. What do you think of
when you see someone waving a white flag on a battlefield?
Everyone knows that a white flag means surrender. It is
an instantly recognizable, unambiguous and complete idea.
That's a meme. You can probably think of many more memes
yourself, like a hitchhiker's thumb, a Red Cross and the
mushroom cloud forming from an atomic blast. There are many
others. A meme can be either just visual, or a combination
of verbal and visual elements.
The important features of a meme are that
it takes a reader or viewer just a split second to get the
point, like the white flag on the battlefield, it is simple
to communicate and it crosses cultural and linguistic boundaries.
MCNews: How does the concept of
a meme change the way we think about marketing our services
to clients?
Levinson: The amount of marketing that
is bombarding people keeps increasing every year, so it's
harder and harder to get through to people, and it's harder
for them to devote the time to read what you want them to
read. A meme can be used as a shortcut to communicating
your value in an increasingly overcrowded marketing environment.
Your meme can immediately communicate to prospective
clients who you are and why they should do business with
you.
If you do it right, an effective meme communicates
your idea instantly, and you have a way of breaking through
the clutter. So, you can do less marketing, enabling you
to cut your marketing budget.
MCNews: What are some examples of memes
used in marketing?
Levinson: One of the best is the Sprint
pin dropping, which they've stayed with now for over a decade.
Their team did market research that showed what people were
most concerned about with a long distance carrier was clarity
and communication.
And, somebody pointed out that often people
characterize a quiet environment as being so quiet you can
hear a pin drop. Using that single thought, they created
a graphic representation of a pin dropping for their marketing.
When people see this meme, the pin drop, they know it means
clear communication.
One of the most successful memes in marketing
history is the Marlboro cowboy, who became a symbol for
rugged individualism and freedom. I was in England when
we introduced the Marlboro Man in Europe, and it was amazing
how many Europeans immediately understood its meaning because
it represented so many things that they had seen only in
movies before.
Notice that the ads don't say much, they usually
just show the cowboy and a pack. Other memes that come to
mind include the Energizer Bunny, which personifies constant
energy, and the Pillsbury Doughboy. I was there when that
meme was developed with Leo Burnett. I didn't like his voice
much, but he's done a good job of communicating fun and
ease. I'd also add the Michelin Man, who does a good job
of representing comfort and softness.
MCNews: Is there a difference between a
meme and a logo?
Levinson: Yes, a big difference. A
logo represents a company, like the swoosh stands for Nike.
If an alien landed on earth and saw the Nike swoosh, it
wouldn't understand what that swoosh was intended to mean,
other than representing a company. But, if an alien saw
the skull and crossbones symbol on a jar, it would probably
get the idea that something in the jar might be dangerous.
So, a logo merely represents a company, but a meme communicates
an entire idea.
MCNews: If you wanted to create a meme
for a consulting practice, where would you start?
Levinson: I tell my clients that
to create a meme, they have to get down to the essence of
their idea, to focus more clearly on what it is they
want people to do. So a meme is really the lowest common
denominator of an idea. This forces people to isolate the
core notion of what they are about, rather than relying
on special effects or fancy production.
The first step is to list the specific benefits
you offer to clients, especially those benefits you provide
that are truly differentiated, or that provide you or your
firm a distinct advantage in the market. You should search
for the benefit or benefits that few others, if any, offer.
Base the list on your understanding of the benefits of your
services and your research on the needs of your clients.
Then, try to think how your benefits can be
expressed visually, or in just a few words. For example,
when marketers were looking for a way to communicate the
benefit of a new, low calorie, frozen dinner, they came
up with Lean Cuisine.
If you are using words to describe your benefits,
don't confuse your emerging meme with a glib, elevator
speech. Your meme must transmit specific information.
So, a consultant could come up with just a
brief set of words and visual images that communicate their
main competitive advantage. This is the starting point.
If you try hard enough, you'll find that every benefit you
offer has some visual representation. By creating a long
list of possible visual images for your meme, you'll have
a wide selection from which to choose.
At this point, you should also create a list
of your target client's characteristics. The list could
include the need to grow the business, reduce costs, or
improve productivity, to name a few. Using the visual and
verbal elements of the client's needs and the benefits you
provide, you have a great starting point for creating your
meme.
The concept of a meme is so new to marketing
that some may shrug it off for now, like some did when on-line
marketing burst onto the scene. I think that if a management
consulting firm comes up with a meme, they will find it's
a real boost for them.
I'd add a quick word of advice to those consultants
launching new practices. If you are in the process of
naming your practice, try to come up with a name that is
also a meme. You'll find this approach simplifies and
can vastly improve your marketing effectiveness.
MCNews: Based on your experience in evaluating
marketing plans, what is, generally, the most common area
for improvement?
Levinson: Many marketers suffer from
a similar ailment, and that's a lack of patience. Create
a sensible marketing plan and then stick with it. Be
patient while the plan takes hold. Over time, the plan may
need to be revised, even re-revised. But with patience,
you'll see the plan evolve, take shape and have a powerful
and profitable impact on your business.
MCNews: How long should a business wait
for the plan to take hold?
Levinson: If they're really lucky,
three to six months. It isn't unusual, though, for a plan
to take a year or so to really pay off. These are broad
ranges, of course.
MCNews: What advice would you give management
consultants about marketing in these turbulent times?
Levinson: There's a common myth in
marketing that suggests that if clients like your marketing,
they will buy your product or service. Consultants must
remember that this is, indeed, a myth. A consultant may
have the best web site, white papers and references, but
fail to capture the imagination and trust of prospective
clients.
A consultant's marketing program is a door
opener, a platform for demonstrating to prospective clients
how the consultant can solve a particular problem. But consulting
is a high contact business, and what must come next is a
personal consultation to demonstrate specifically how your
service will bring substantial benefit.
I can't stress enough the importance of the
personal consultation in marketing consulting services in
these times. What this means is spending some of your precious
marketing resources and energy demonstrating and potentially
helping clients address some of their issues before
they hire you.
MCNews: One final question: what's on your
personal reading list right now?
Levinson: I read and review a range
of business books I get from my agent and others. So, my
personal reading list is filled with fiction, your basic
beach books. They give me a refreshing break from all the
non-fiction.
MCNews: Thanks for your time today and
for the great ideas.
* * * * *
More information on Jay Conrad Levinson is
available at www.jayconradlevinson.com
and www.gmarketingcoach.com.
If you'd like to read more about Jay Levinson's
marketing strategies, you should sample these four books:
Mastering
Guerrilla Marketing, Guerrilla
Marketing,
The Way of the Guerrilla and Guerrilla
Creativity.
For more information on applying Jay Levinson's
Guerrilla Marketing strategies to consulting, see Guerrilla
Marketing for Consultants, his book with
MCNews editor Michael McLaughlin.
If you want to see another source on the subject
of memes, click
here.
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