The Law of Success – Success Often Leads to Arrogance, and Arrogance to Failure
Ego is the enemy of successful marketing.
Objectivity is what’s needed.
When people become successful, they tend to become less objective. They often substitute their own judgment for what the market wants.
Donald Trump is an example of people blinded early by success and untainted by humility. And when you are blind, it is indeed hard to focus.
Trump’s strategy was to put his name on everything, committing the cardinal sin of line extension. Denial seems to go hand in hand with a big ego. When first meeting the Donald, he will frequently begin with a discussion about how people accuse him of having a big ego; which he denies. However, while he is speaking, it is hard to avoid noticing big T symbols all around; so much for the sermons about not having a big ego.
Success is often the fatal element behind the rash of line extensions. When a brand is successful, the company assumes the name is the primary reason for the brand’s success. So they promptly look for other products to plaster the name on.
Actually it is the opposite. The name did not make the brand famous (although a bad name might keep the brand from becoming famous). The brand got famous because you made the right marketing moves. In other words, the steps you took were in tune with the fundamental laws of marketing.
You got into the mind first. You narrowed the focus. You preempted a powerful attribute.
Your success puffs up your ego to such an extent that you put the famous name on other products. Result: early success and long-term failure as illustrated by the actions of Donald Trump.
The more you identify with your brand or corporate name, the more likely you are to fall into the line extension trap. It can’t be the name, you might be thinking when things go wrong. We have a great name. Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.
One aspect of the problem is the allocation of time; too many industry activities, too many outside board meetings, too many testimonial dinners.
According to a recent survey, the average CEO spends 18 hours a week on outside activities. The next time waster is internal meetings with approx 17 hours a week attending corporate meetings and 6 hours a week preparing for those meetings.
Since the typical top executive works 60 hours a week, this leaves only 20 hours for everything else including managing the operation and going down to the front line. No wonder the chief executives delegate the marketing function, which is a big mistake.
Marketing is too important to be turned over to an underling. If you delegate anything, you should delegate the chairmanship of the next fund-raising drive; like the VP of the US attends state funerals, not the president.
The next activity to cut back is the time spent on the meetings. Instead of talking things over, walk out and see for yourself. As Gorbachev told Reagan, “It is better to see once than to hear a hundred times.”
Small companies are mentally closer to the front than big companies. That might be one reason why they grow more rapidly and viewed as the engine to revive the economy. They have not been tainted by the Law of Success.
It takes a while but many Internet Marketing entrepreneurs learn the Law of Success. They learn to objectively identify their target market with keyword research and keyword research tools as they know they can not guess what the market desires nor can they predict the future.
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 Success as success can lead to arrogance and arrogance often leads to failure.
You can find out more about Internet Marketing and home-based businesses by reading updates that will be posted at this article directory over the next few weeks.
Finally, 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.
