The Clean and Green Club, May 2021

<!doctype html>

 

Having trouble reading this as an email? Please visit thecleanandgreenclub.com to read it comfortably online.

Shel Horowitz’s Clean and Green Marketing Tip: May 2021

Share
Tweet
Share

A 15-Second Lesson in Super-Effective Communication

Spend 15 seconds watching this video. Yes, I said seconds. It took me longer to write this paragraph than it will take you to watch.

This is an attempt to cross the lines of political division—to talk in the language of your target market, rather than your own demographic. For the purposes of analysis, it doesn’t matter which direction that flows; the lesson is about how to talk to the other side, whatever side that happens to be.

Do you think it worked? Why or why not? Please leave a comment to let me know.

I’ve advocated talking respectfully with the other side for decades, and frequently have conversations, in-person and online, with people whose views are very different from mine. I joke that my right-wing friends think I’m a communist dupe while my left-wing friends think I’m a capitalist tool. I’m also a believer in long-form messaging. I don’t typically see 15 seconds as enough time to convey any real content, especially a substantive discussion of fraught issues.

Nonetheless, I think this spot is amazingly powerful and effective. It uses both visuals (the cowboy, the American flag) and narrative to build support for this piece of legislation as a patriotic act that “puts the American people back in charge” after leading with a frame of government corruption. Yet the bill it supports is heavily supported by progressives and liberal Democrats and as of this writing (April 13) hasn’t received endorsements by any Republicans in Congress as far as I know—though plenty of ordinary-citizen Republicans do support it.

I am not aware of any outreach of this quality from the right to the left. If you have an example of a video (two minutes or less) that successfully makes the case to progressives on a favored right-wing issue, please share it with me—and tell me if I have your permission to thank you by name.

Share
Tweet
Share

Discover why Chicken Soup’s Jack Canfield, futurist Seth Godin, and many others recommend Shel’s 10th book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World (and download a free sampler). Autographed and inscribed copies available.

View highlights from (and listen to) more than 30 podcasts ranging from 5 minutes to a full hour. Click here to see descriptions and replay links.

Share
Tweet
Share

Inspiration to Perspiration

Inspiration to Perspiration: The 4 Essential Steps to Achieving Your Goals by David A. Jacobson (Goal Success, 2003)

The title is a metaphor, of course—but in this case, it’s also literal. The author and his wife Shari were inspired by Team In Training (TNT), a fundraising arm of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, to train for and run a marathon.

TNT raises vast amounts of money for medical research, by getting even couch potatoes to participate in some kind of extreme athletic event like a marathon, 100-mile bike ride, or even an Iron Man triathlon.

The book interweaves David and Shari’s personal journey, David’s four-step GAIN goal achievement formula that he uses with his coaching clients (first introduced on p. 6 and throughout the book), and the personal stories of athlete participants and blood cancer patients—including the organization’s founder and his teenage daughter Kim Costa’s Ten Life Lessons (written shortly before her death, pp. 98-100).

What I found most interesting, and the reason I chose to review this book even though it seems to be out of print (though widely available on the second-hand market) is TNT’s marketing and fundraising strategy. It’s so different from that of many other causes, focused as it is on individual and team-based athletic achievement. Yes, I know, squillions of charities use athletic events to raise money. But typically, these have much more modest standards and don’t require extensive training.

Participating in one of these extreme events, especially for those starting from a very sedentary lifestyle, requires several months of arduous training. And to fundraise at scale, most of us need to develop parts of our personality that might be in hiding. It’s a great example of my long-time claim that successful social change businesses need to appeal both to self-interest and to the greater public interest.

On the self-interest side, TNT athletes get in shape, bond with others, build community, and feel like they’re making a difference. And in the public interest, they are raising money for research that is helping actual people, including their “honored patient.”

TNT motivates its athletes by letting them build a personal connection with an actual cancer patient. The athlete wears a facsimile of the patient’s hospital ID bracelet and might pin a picture of that cancer hero on the back of their jersey. TNT trains them with a huge organization of more than 800 coaches around the country and the world, in small groups where they can build community around their common purpose. And there’s lots of emphasis on finding and nurturing the support that will nurture you. For instance, Jacobson identifies eight different types of support networks (pp. 60-62). And he recognizes that asking for the support you need might itself be a new challenge (pp. 64, 72).

Jacobson moves back into the coaching role near the end of the book, with a great list of 50 questions to ask yourself as you look at your goals (aimed at teens but useful for any age, pp. 169-171), and seven implementation questions (p. 173). And I love his exhortation to think big in order to act big (pp. 178-179).

Connect with Shel

Turn Your Sustainability/CSR Report Into Powerful Marketing!  http://goingbeyondsustainability.com/turn-that-nobody-reads-it-csr-report-into-a-marketing-win/

About Shel

Speaker, author, and consultant Shel Horowitz of GoingBeyondSustainabiity.com helps businesses find the sweet spot at the intersections of profitability with environmental and social good — creating and marketing profitable products and services that make a direct difference on problems like hunger, poverty, war, and catastrophic climate change. His 10th book is Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World.

If you’re not already a subscriber, please visit http://goingbeyondsustainability.com and scroll to the very bottom left corner. You’ll find lots of interesting information on your way to the subscription for, too.

————–

Links in this newsletter may earn commissions. Please click here for our privacy and endorsement policy.

 

Powered by:

GetResponse

 

Leave a Comment

Name: (Required)

E-mail: (Required)

Website:

Comment: