Notes

Are You Drinking YOUR PERSONAL Kool-Aid?
The phrase, "Drinking the Kool-Aid" is frequently used when a company is so attached to its own products and services that if fails to consider the needs of its customers or the media. I've worked with companies whose belief within their own offerings and philosophies made them blind to the real world, and worse yet, wound up offending the many stakeholders upon whom their success and failure depends.

"Drinking the Kool-Aid" is not a similar thing as "team spirit." Passion for your organizational vision and mission is an excellent thing. I'm discussing the C-Suite executive or business owner who forgets their company is there to fulfill an unmet need that their audience actually wants.

Think about the Ford Edsel story. The "Edsel" went down in history as a colossal marketing faux pas, or failure to gauge what their customers wanted. There are numerous reasons for its failure:

The Edsel was designed by an extremely large committee. Time magazine called it, "irrational groupthink." The Edsel designers were focused on designing a vehicle for a segment whose needs had recently been met. They called it, "Edsel," which didn't help either.

They misinterpreted the study. The Ford company spent thousands on general market trends. What they didn't know then was that people have a tendency to lie on surveys, telling researchers what they think others, not themselves, want. Some argue that the survey data was viable, but Ford's interpretation of it had been incorrect.

The automobile was, well, ugly, and had many mechanical flaws. The assembly lines had trouble putting it together. There were complaints about the tail lights. The worst feedback of all, however, was concerning the appearance of leading grille. One of the nicer insults was that it looked like "an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon," and there were other snarky anatomical references.

Consider Ford's mistakes when planning your next story pitch to the media.

1. Take your head from the sand. The media and your target audience are hungry for interesting stories, educational content and how your unique expertise solves problems. Find ways to provide information, products and services that meet the needs of the media, not the fiscal need of your business. Basically, think about the interests of the media outlet you intend to pitch rather than push a story that meets your agenda alone.

2. Target the media who are thinking about your industry. How to Design Great Websites of my editor friends vented last week at lunch. She covers women's issues and wellness, but daily in her email inbox she gets press releases and pitches about animals, auto racing, food along with other unrelated topics. She said she used to forward the releases to the correct news desks, but lately, she's just deleting them. Before you send press releases or requests for coverage to any media outlet, execute a bit of research throughly first. Find out what they need to do their jobs. It'll be appreciated and yield good karma.

3. Test How to Design Great Websites or product thoroughly before rolling it out to the media. The press had a field day with the Edsel. It became the "fun thing to criticize." If there's any fault whatsoever together with your product, how it's delivered, or the grade of your customer service, there may be a storm of controversy in the form of customer complaints in social media marketing or bad reviews from well-intentioned consumer advocacy reporters. Be certain your offering is really a well-oiled machine with a lot of support from your friendly, well-trained employees.

The Edsel was dubbed, "the incorrect car at the wrong time." So, avoid the Kool-Aid and look after your stakeholders first.
Here's my website: https://te.legra.ph/Are-You-Drinking-YOUR-PERSONAL-Kool-Aid-04-16-2