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January 31, 2006
Rules? What rules?
Are there rules to marketing?
We have our six tenets. Countless books and textbooks describing immutable laws, rules and principles arrive each year from authoritative and smart people teaching us how to market and sell stuff.
But then there's Harper Lee, who has one product: The book "To Kill A Mockingbird." Harper Lee is very publicity-shy. Doesn't blog, doesn't do tours, or press interviews (except for this rare, recent one) or anything to market herself. "To Kill A Mockingbird" is her only book.
Yet, countless people are named after her or the book's memorable characters. One trembling teen, upon meeting her at a children's essay contest mentioned in the story above, called Harper Lee "the most important person in my life."
Tom Peters wondered aloud the other day if shabby corporate performance is the result of solutions too complex to manage under stress. That companies become prisoners of the rules they or their consultants create.
Harper Lee isn't following any established rules of marketing, yet her book has sold 10 million copies since 1960.
Perhaps the only rule, if we can call it that, is to work terribly hard at creating or contributing to something that you believe will change someone's life. It seems then that the possibility of trembling admiration for your work goes beyond mere imagination.
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Well there are rules and to suggest different is to author chaos. Not that chaos is bad, because even there, there are rules of order. Usually the strong rule and the rest loose. Rules keep things honest and present forms of order.
“To Kill A Mockingbird”, which is one of my personal favorites, is a great example of someone delivering an excellent product to a publishing house who marketed it for her. The publisher knew exactly what to do with what they had. More than that, it is a wonderfully powerful example of what customer advocacy can do.
It also helped that it was required reading in high schools and colleges around the world and I believe it still is. Wonderfully well written, it has captured the heart and imagination of generation after generation
Rules? I dont think there are rules per se. I do think that that their are guidelines that will increase the probability of sucess. As Harper Lee shows it is possible to be succesful and not follow the guidelines/rules. In the future I expect more people to break some of the rules and be succesful, the viral power of the Internet can be incredible.
Very interesting case study. It seems, by all logic, To Kill a Mockingbird is a fluke. However, as Tim pointed out, it was required reading at most high schools and colleges, which makes up what old schoolers would call a "channel". We are indoctrinated from youth with a certain amount of awe from the book. If anything, it is a great case study on customer evangelism.
If the Internet bubble taught us anything, it was that there are rules. And those rules don't change because the distribution model did. I recently posted a blog on this where I talked about how all the hype about word-of-mouth may be taking the same path as Internet companies in the late 90s. Let us not forget that there are core principles to marketing. Just because the tactics change, the principles of helping customers buy products and services don't. Click on my name and it will link you to this blog post if you would like to view it or comment.
Perhaps she is publicity shy for this reason from Wikipedia:
"Truman Capote was a lifelong friend of childhood neighbor Harper, and allegedly was the inspiration for Dill's character in her best-seller. Capote frequently implied that he himself had written a considerable portion of her novel, and some have said he ghosted the entire novel. At least one person—Pearl Kazin Bell, an editor at Harper's Magazine— has gone on record as believing his assertions were true."
That notation in Wikipedia is unfortunate. The encyclopedia's stand on speculative content: "Just because information is sourced doesn't mean that it is acceptable to add it to Wikipedia... outlandish claims beg strong sources."
