Law Hermes-Belt

It goes against corporate and human nature to admit a problem. For years, the power of positive thinking has been drummed into us and “think positive” has been the subject of endless books and articles.

So it may come as a surprise to you that one of the most effective ways to get into a prospects mind is to be candid and first admit a negative, then twist it into a positive.

Avis is only No 2 in rent cars.

With a name like Smuckers it has to be good.

Whats going on here? Why does a dose of honesty work so well in the marketing process?

First and foremost, candor is very disarming. Every negative statement you make about yourself is instantly accepted as truth. Positive statements, on the other hand, are looked at as dubious at best especially in an advertisement.

You have to prove a positive statement to the prospects satisfaction. No proof is needed for a negative statement.

“With a name like Smuckers it has to be good.” Most companies, especially family companies, would never make fun of their name. Yet the Smucker family did, which is one reason why Smuckers is the No 1 brand of jams and jellies. If your name is bad, you have two choices: change the name or make fun of it.

Avis is only No 2 in rent cars so why go with them? They must try harder. Everybody knew that Avis was second in rent cars.

So why go with the obvious? Marketing is often a search for the obvious. Since you cant change a mind once it is made up, your marketing efforts have to be devoted to using ideas and concepts already installed in the brain. You have to use your marketing programs to “rub it in.” No program did this as brilliantly as the Avis No 2 program.

The explosive growth of communications in our society has made people defensive and cautious about companies trying to sell them anything. Admitting a problem is something that very few companies do.

When a company starts a message by admitting a problem, people tend to, almost instinctively, open their minds. Think about the times that someone came to you with a problem and how quickly you got involved and wanted to help. Now think about people starting a conversation about some wonderful things they are doing. You probably were a lot less interested.

Now with that mind open, you are in a position to drive in the positive, which is our selling idea. Some years ago, Scope entered the mouthwash market with a good tasting mouthwash thus exploiting Listerines truly terrible taste.

What should Listerine do? It certainly could not tell people that Listerines taste was not all that bad. That would raise a red flag that would reinforce a negative perception. Things could get worse. Instead, Listerine brilliantly invoked the law of candor: “The taste you hate twice a day.”

Not only did the company admit the product tasted bad, it admitted that people actually hated it (now thats honesty). This admission setup the selling idea that Listerine “kills a lot of germs.”

The prospect figured that anything that tastes like disinfectant must indeed be a germ killer. A crisis passed with help of a heavy dose of candor.

One final note: The law of candor must be used carefully and with great skill. First, your negative must be widely perceived as a negative. It has to trigger an instant agreement with your prospects mind. If the negative does not register quickly, your prospect will be confused and will wonder, “What is this all about?”

Next you have to shift quickly to the positive. The purpose of candor is not to apologize. The purpose of candor is to setup a benefit that will convince your prospect.

This law only proves the old maxim: Honesty is the best policy.

Marketing is a battle of ideas. If you are to succeed, you must have a unique attribute to focus and describe your value. Without one, you had better have a low price; a very low price.

It takes a while but many Internet Marketing entrepreneurs learn the Law of Candor. They learn to identify their target market, focus on promoting products that will appeal and add value to their target market.

To accomplish this, they use various methods, tools, and follow a traffic formula to build relationships with their leads and customers. They build websites that create trust. They collect name and email addresses using an Optin form on a Landing Page. They use email systems with both auto-responders and broadcast capabilities in order to send messages to their leads and customers. These email messages frequently send information, provide knowledge, and occasionally promote an offering. Many Internet Marketing entrepreneurs learn that leads and customers do not like to be sold to however they will browse and shop. Over an extended period of time, skilled Internet Marketers are able to use hypnotic writing skills, in their marketing campaigns, to get leads and customers to take the action they want. This is how they learn to identify a target market, stay focused, and add value to their target market. They learn to leverage the equity in their list and be successful in the world that includes the Law of Candor.

It looks easy but marketing is not a game for amateurs. Marketing is not a battle of products. It is all about the strategy you use to benefit from the Law of Candor when you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive.

You can find out more about Internet Marketing and home-based businesses by reading updates that will be posted at my blog over the next few weeks.

Also, a great book to read is “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” by Ries & Trout. It is the source of some of the material provided in this article.

In closing, be sure to meet me at my website, WhoIsMikeFarrell, learn some tips about being No 1 on Google at aspenIbiz My Go-To-Market Partners, and learn how to be savvy with your money like the insiders at aspenIbiz The Conspiracy For Your Money Blog.

Finally, I would like to provide Best Wishes for a Prosperous New Year!

During times of duress, uncertainty and economic challenges, we all at one time or another will turn to faith of some kind. While many of us appreciate that there is comfort in prayer and meditation; there are times when even the most devout seek a more clinical remedy.

If you are at all familiar with the principles behind the Law of Attraction then you will want to add this eBook to your collection. Dr. F. W. Sears was a practicing psychologist during the early 1900s; a predecessor of Napoleon Hill who skyrocketed to fame with Think & Grow Rich, Sears fueled many of Hills theories.

Sears published many articles on his study of harmonious attraction throughout his career. In this book How To Attract Success, he cites several case studies and his own personal experiences with modifying behavior in order to change the vibration or energy surrounding ones efforts in such a way as to literally attract the people, situations, circumstances etc. necessary to achieve the success you desire.

No, this is not hocus pocus, black magic voodoo, or atheist based. These are natures laws, universal laws that have been observed and studied and woven into all faiths, through the millennium, and accepted as a matter of fact. A matter of fact that struggles to preserve itself in a society more interested in how to make money instead of how to succeed as a human being. On a global level it is very important what we all individually seek to achieve and how we go about doing that. Many have utilized the Laws of Force without even realizing it when their efforts might have been better spent understanding the Law of Harmony. Why generate all that negative energy when positive energy will not only satisfy your own desires but also contribute to a more productive mass consciousness. One person really can affect change.

Dr. Sears expresses this best, To understand this Law of Force and its manipulation by the power of concentration with man’s mental faculties is what the schools, colleges and universities of the world teach as psychology.
It is no more real psychology than black is white. Just as black is the absence of all color while white is the harmonious union of all color, so is the psychology of the schools, colleges and universities of the world the absence of all real psychology because such teachings are limited only to the physical and mental planes. Real psychology is the union of all planes of consciousness manifesting in one perfect and harmonious whole, under the Law of Harmony.

Laws of Attraction did not begin or end with How To Attract Success. As a student of all the Universal Laws, you will want to study all the pioneers in this field for your own edification of a very broad subject. There are references in the book enough to get you started on your own self-help library. So many phenomenal books and teachers out there that can feed one’s hunger and thirst for self-improvement. There is no one path that will lead the masses to realize their inner-purpose, but all roads will lead you somewhere.

If this is the first book you have read that dared to claim that we could effectively change our own lives, it will fan your curiosity and drive you in new directions of self growth.

Dr. F.W. Sears was a Master of Psychology, a practical man of science. His writings and practical applications were produced during the 1910’s and 1920’s yet remain as relevant now as then. He not only practiced what he preached but, applied his theories in counsel to his own patients and chronicled their successes. Many of those accounts you will find in this book.
Turns out that Attraction is not a secret phenomenon it is an ancient Universal Truth. Study along with one of the Masters, discover what he has learned, lectured about and practiced himself.

In this adaptation, an introduction has been added that will show relevance almost 100 years later. By adding notable quotes from ancient scholars, spiritual teachers and other self-improvement authors, this chronicle of Dr. Sears’ observations and practical applications are more palatable to today’s reader.

If you are a student of the Universe, you will appreciate the books introduction and benefit from this read.