Pen Type-A
Today’s big story is Heidi and Spencer are broke. They go on record that reality television is anything but, and state that there’s no future in being a reality star:
In other words, don’t equate fame with a career. Don’t even equate fame with being rich, did you read in today’s "New York Times" that Faye Dunaway drives a 2007 Toyota Corolla?
If you want to be rich you’ve got to have a product people want to buy.
If you want to have a career, you must be selling something of substance.
But if you want to get started, it helps to be cool.
Check out this Kickstarter page:
This is not some wannabe band but something positively arcane that people are willing to plunk $50 down for in order to own it so they can be cool.
These numbers are positively staggering.
They asked for $2,500. They GOT $191,124!
And they’ve still got almost two weeks to go.
And the video is crappy.
You see if you’ve got a good product, one people covet, the marketing doesn’t have to be good, people will clamor to buy it.
If you’ve truly got great music, you don’t need major label marketing, you don’t need radio or television, the public will find you and support you on the tunes alone.
But almost no one’s that good anymore so they look to the machine to make them. They dun people to pay attention, failing to realize we live in a pull, not a push economy.
And speaking of the economy… It’s rotten, but there’s tons of money for that which people desire.
So:
2. Explain what you’re doing. Mystery is passe. You don’t have to explain the music, but you’ve got to explain how you got here. Read the story of this pen, you get it.
3. Don’t be afraid to play. The video might be lousy, but these creators decided not to wait, but put their idea in the marketplace. Don’t polish the turd, play.
4. Greatness begets its own marketing. Look, I’m telling YOU!
5. The story does not begin and end on one page. That’s the TV commercial, thirty seconds and you’re done. But reading about this pen I wondered if it was a hoax, I Googled, I researched, I learned. How do you engender this passion?
6. PR is BS. You want to reach sneezers from the general public, they’re the only ones your customers will trust. And you can only do this with a great product.
We live in a changing world that those in power want to deny and decry. To think that newspapers and record labels will survive is to deny history, where IBM and Microsoft dominate one day and are in the rearview mirror tomorrow. Not only companies, but whole industries disappear. It all comes down to the music. But how that’s reaching the public is changing. And never forget, it’s much easier to hype than to create the tunes. Everybody can write, but not everybody can play.
