No B.S. Information Marketing Letter SPECIAL REPORT #39/OCTOBER 2010 by Dan 8. Kennedy High Concept “Differentiate or die.” - Jack Trout Each NO B.S. INFO-MARKETING REPORT ings you a revealing INSIDER’S look ticular aspect of information marketing business. ‘These Reports alternate every other month with sues of The No BS. INFO-Marketng Letter”; 6 times a year, « new Report, 6 mes ayeor, the newslter. ‘The Letter/Reports are included in Information Marketing Asocation Membership 1.0 Member Benefit (wor.info marketing org) or available asa separate subscription from Glazer/Kennedy Insider's Circle™ (‘HOT tobe confused withthe ragulr Mo BS. Marketing eter or Th Ho BS. Marketing To The Avon Later «so plied by Glazor/Nonnedy Insider's Cice™) © 2010/Glazer Kennet) Insider's Crcle™ ‘THE HOME OF INSIDER'S INFORMATION!™ZOMBIES walk the earth. ‘They number many among your customers and prospects. Mind-numbed by the many me-too, same-as-the-other-guy info-marketers in their niche, and maybe also by your stream of same-as-last-time communiqués, so that everything becomes a blur. This problem is worsened, incidentally, by the trend toward ever- inereasing frequency of e-mails and other outreach as responsiveness to it, declines; the quality of the creative, the copywriting suffers; each thing is a hasty, sloppy derivation of the one before. Soon these customers are blind and deaf to it all. Many of you are doing this to yourselves. Sorry, but fifty crappy, poorly crafted, derivative e-mails do not stand equal to one very well-crafted, thoughtfully prepared solo offer. It’s no wonder the zombies aren't waking up and paying attention; most of what they’re being sent doesn’t deserve attention. ‘They number many among your customers and prospects. Their souls deadened by a drug out, dragging on economic malaise. With dead eyes and drained energy, they trudge through their days. Ultimately, our kind of selling requires the triggering of optimism. If we cannot dig down and find that in someone, we can’t sell to them. ‘They number many among your customers and prospects. They are so incessantly connected to multiple stimuli with nary a minute's break, immersed im clutter as never before, sucked into texting and twittering and (what the CEO of Google accurately called) the cesspool of the internet, their ability to think has actually died. ‘They are walking dead. ‘Waking up zombies and bringing them back to living human form - so that they can and will buy ~ is no easy task. In Report #38, I catalogued many of the Game-Changers of this business, that can help. Here, I continue on that path, with a look at High Concept - the manufacture of some Very, Very Big Thing, big enough, bold enough, compelling enough to wake the dead. Happy Halloween & Good Zombie Hunting, Dan KennedyThe article reprinted here from USA TODAY (8-6-10) speaks to a shi that has been, at first, gradual, now accelerated: the diminished importance of ‘movie stars’, and the heightened importance of the High Concept. And the selling of movies to the public based on Concept rather than stars). Of course, the entertainment industry has always been cconcept-driven, One of my favorite anecdotes about this has to do with the pitching ofthe show ultimately aired as Miami Vice to studio execs with two words: MTV+COPS, (At the time, music videos and MTV were the rage, and Miami Vice was the first show to use long music overlays with rnon-voiced scenes.) Movie studios love franchise concepts in which actors can be changed think Bond, Batman. Law & Order has been one of the most profitable TV franchises, as its stars have been interchangeable; the concept made it nd gave it longevity: the combining of a cop show with a lawyer show, haif'n half. The entertainment industry lives on High Concept. The hit HBO show The Sopranos was The Godfather+Soap Opera, and the show Deadwood was The Sopranos transplanted to the wild west. HBO has gone to the same well again this year, with Boardwalk Empire. The old Wild, Wild West show was the very popular Man From UNCLE transplanted. On Showtime, Weeds began as a classic ish-out-f-water concept, with an ordinary soocer-mom tured drug dealer, stil in her idylic suburbia location. This year, Showtime is airing a show called “The Big C’, about a woman with terminal cancer given short time to live - this show, purportedly a comedy. In the biz, that's called: reversal, inthis case doing what would normally be done as drama as comedy. Because info-marketers need to be and are in the entertainment business, the fact that High Concept has been the foundation of Hollywood's output for some time and is now of fast- growing importance shouldn't be ignored by us. For many established info-marketers, this prolonged and unique recession delayed from any real recovery by Obama policies is proving to be a serious problem. Info-marketers are finding it harder and harder to even interest businesspeople in investing, in any way — product purchase, seminar, coaching, etc. —in attempting to increase sales or improve their businesses. There are many factors, and no one solution, but certainly some Very Big Thing has to be part of the solution. lived fora time in an environment where a New Very Big Thing had to be concocted weekly, as we drew thousands every weekend to a 3-day training event, and needed the same people retuming weekend after weekend after weekend — so even as cone was in progress, we were cooking up the next weekend's entirely new, revolutionary, Tevelationary, “history-in-the-making" event you absolutely dare not miss. Since many of you subscribe to Look Over My Shoulder’, my first use of that Concept might interest you. | was speaking at a Gary Halbert seminar in Key West, Florida, I forget the year, but a long while back, and at lunch on the 2° day, Gary announced to a few of us dining with him — Carlton, Nicholas, me, | forget who else — that he needed something to go back downstairs and sell for at least $10,000.00, that 50 or more would easily say yes to. After some discussion, it was decided that he would put people into groups of 10, gift each with one of the best product/business ideas he had lying around napping, develop ads fr i, run the ads, and split the profits with the backers. | added the “look over shoulder’ component; that every investor would get an intimate backstage look over Gary's shoulder at the development of all the projects. | imagine fulfilment fell short ofthe promise, but that's not the point here. There's no doubt that a number of people bought in who didn't care about, were suspicious of, or- as one said to me, certain he'd lose money on the first part, but were eager to see all they could see of the behind the scenes. ("Look Over My Shoulder is my monthly “package” of work in progress for my private clients as well as business in which Ihave interests, wth detailed analysis, and look a very advanced copyrting tactics, You itealy see over amilion dollars worth ~in fees and royalties ~ of cent work during a year, often in raw, rough daft stage Iis not ‘another newsletter but an authentic, rather unvarnished look a my work as I dit. You can obtain Look Over My ‘Shoulder with Bill Giazer’s Copy Confidential rom Glazer-Kennedy Insider's Cirle. If you write copy or have copy ten you end ret col shng nd han making ue of Look Overy Shuler evry month, youre 8 ol) I tell you one more. In the 70's, there was a professional horseracing tout advertising aggressively and operating under the name Mike Warren. The entre Mike story is too lengthy for here. To be uick, he sold a $10 book called ‘How To Rob Banks Legally’ which actually was about robbing tracks and bookies, then moved people to buying which horses to bet on from his phone room. It ‘was not, as you might quickly speculate, an entirely legiimate enterprise. However, Warren was actually a highly skilled handicapper of the NYC thoroughbred tracks, and did have a comparatively small break-out group of clients for whom he delivered an honest service. In any case, every year, he ran the equivalent of a seminar, but it was a tour with him ofthe five finest racetracks throughout Europe, 5 in 10 days as | recall, ata very fat fee; a big multiple of what an ordinary 5- city tour could be purchased fo, from any travel group. But the unique factor here, and the High Concept, was that every race morning, Mike would handicap the day's card “out loud” so you could work along with him and be privy to his selections, wagers, wins and losses, and if you wished, bet as he did. He filed his group every year. Hopefully, the difference between doing this as a seminar in an LA. or N.Y. hotel and then going to Hollywood Park or Aqueduct and schlepping al over Europe is obvious — but don't miss the importance of such injected intrigue. This Report is about the value of the High Concept in the info-marketing business....with regard to brands, products, positioning in a niche or other market. The Concept that drove the entire self-improvement industry from the 40's forward was “thinking makes it so’. It bthed many bestseling books, enduring brands, and enterprises. Hil's Think And Grow Rich. Peale's Power of Positive Thinking. Schwartz’ Magic of Thinking Big. The other Concept critical to that industry has been the existence of a (single) Secret. Earl Nightingale’s The Strangest Secret (which is linked to the other concept - we become what we think about most’) was the first spoken word record to achieve Gold Record status, and launched the Nightingale- Conant company. More recently, the monster success of the video, ‘The Secret’ (also linked to the thought concept as well as the concept of magnetism/attraction, which I'l get to in a moment. The most recent news re. The Secret is reprinted with this Report; an article from The New Yorker.) When | was searching for a High Concept for my teaching of direct marketing and direct-response advertising fo business owners unfamiliar with i, in industries where it was foreign, | chose Magnetism, and named my approach: Magnetic Marketing, and re-named a recession born product tiled The Small Business Emergency Survival System as The Magnetic Marketing System. MAGNETISM as concept also is basis for my Wealth Attraction book (with 28 Wealth MAGNETS), that recently borrowed by Bill for his Social Media Summit, promoted with concept of Money Magnets. This Concept goes back a long, long, long way. | have, for example, popular books on “magnetism” — including a text on THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE ~ dating back to 1926. And the idea of ‘mental magnetism’ goes back at least tothe spirtualsts and mesmerists of the Houdini era. Maltz’ Psycho-Cybemetics is, essentially, a scientific and procedural approach to the same basic idea ie. by forming certain mental pictures with precise clarity, you can attract the corresponding realities, (In all incarnations, Psycho-Cybemetics has sold an estimated 30-milion books. THE NEW PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS that | co-authored with Maltz is my #1 bestsellingbook of all I've written, and the Nightingale-Conant album of same title | recorded for them was their #1 bestselling self-improvement program 2 years’ running.) Applied to just about anything, the Concept of Attraction has great appeal. Over years, | have made a point of developing what | hoped - and often were — intriguing Concepts (partial ist @ end of this Report). Il mention just a few here in some detail Staff-Driven Practice Linvented this for Greg Stanley at Whitehall Management, a well-established, well-respected practice- development traininglcoaching company operating in the chiropractic and dental professions. His excellent reputation within these professions had actually become a burden, as everybody believed they knew what he was all about - and they were interested in new, not ol. | jacked up the good reputation and rolled in an entirely new, atthe time radical High Concept: that the staff could, by itself, uel the practice's growth, freeing the doctor from worry or effort in securing new patients, $399.00 Into $3,999.00 (In One Weekend) This, for the Gold-By-The-Inch business opportunity, for which | created pictorial and advertorial print ads, direct-mail and the longest running lead generation TV infomercial in industry history — which ran continuously for 8 years. The GBI buyer was mostly blue-collar, high school educated, man or husband-wife ‘couple, prompted by needidesire fora simple, straightforward way to make money in their spare time, They didn't necessarily want a business or see themselves as businesspeople or entrepreneurs; they wanted to make some money to pay off pressing bils or for some other specific purpose. The company owner, Len Shykind, was, to be fai, already using the $399-$3,999 promise before my arrival, but | pounced on it and have in much greater emphasis. The beauty of his concept was its Simplicity. No BS To credit the inspirations: when | was coming up, there was a sales trainer named Hank Trisler with a program titled No Bull Selling’. Also, in Phoenix, a car dealer who starred in his own TV commercials, often sitting atop a giant bul, with tagline: ‘and that aint no bull.” I'm afraid that “bullshit is one of the profanities | have uttered in anger frequently since teens — | even had a rubber stamp that said BULLSHIT, which | used as quickest answer to correspondence; stamp and retum. When | was casting about for a positioning identity, initially for my newsletter, | decided to assert that | — nike all others — would give it to you straight. It, of course, became the primary umbrela-identty for everything; newsletters, books, persona. The frst issue of the newsletter featured as its masthead, a photo of a big ple of steaming dung. (Pre-photo-shop. A ro photographer was paid to get the shot.) The iconic Dan-in-business-sut-on-bull photo was first done for a NO BS book cover, forthe fist publisher, Self-Counsel Press. As trivia, the current Giazer-Kennedy no bul lago also migrated from my NO BS book covers at Entrepreneur Press. | get letters every month to this day asking questions about the bul in that photo, and one year, had Dan Kennedy bobbleheads made, with me on the bull. Bill has protected it ll with trademarks and copyrights, and Giazer-Kennedy Insider's Circle very successfully and aggressively acts against theft ofthese intellectual property assets. | think what's best about this Concept is (again) Simplicity. In two words comprised of four letters, a photo, a logo, people get it. Itnot only conveys a certain expectation of content but also of tone. If you added everything sold under this identity together; books, info-products, subscriptions/membership, coaching, events, ancillary products (like apparel), icensing revenues, etc. the total would easily exceed 250-milion dollars.Some Of The Key Elements of High Concept FORMULA. There are formulas, In the first paragraph of this Report, | gave examples of four: combining; fish out of water; transplanting; and reversal. ‘SIMPLICITY. A High Concept should be instantly and easily understood, and conveyed in very few words. INTEREST. In business use, this usually comes out ofthe stated or applied promise. However, you get tot, there must be reason for your intended audience to be instantly attracted to and interested in the Concept ~ without first knowing any details. Ferris’ 4-HOUR WORKWEEK is a Promise-Concept. AFFINITY. This one isn't always there, butf you consider my NO BS or RENEGADE MILLIONAIRE Concepts, you can understand that people want to identiy themselves with these ideas... in a sense "Joining" and “belonging” “AGAINST”. Again, this one isnt alvays there, but can be powerful, CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE, for example, telegraphs what itis opposed to vs. saying CITIZENS FOR GOVERNMENT FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY - which is more interesting? NO BS is an Against Concept. NEW+KNOWN, When NO MONEY DOWN REAL ESTATE was brought forward as a moneymaking ‘opportunity it was the most radical idea ofthe day. At the time, almost all nancing required hefty down- payments and good credit, and investing in real estate was what the already-rich did with their money. But it's important to understand that realestate itself was familar to everybody, and there was a pre-existing belief that investing in and owning real estate was a very good thing and a way wealth was created or expanded. “BIGNESS”. To eam High Concept status, it cant be small or ordinary; it has to be big, Its hard to explain "bigness". You know it when you hear it, though. "Burn Off Body Fat Hour By Hour - While You Sleep” was ‘one of the most successful weightloss pitches ever, because of the bigness ofthe promise. In 8 words, you “got” that there would be no exercise required, and that change would be quick. Bigness is cousin to bokiness — a Concept that makes you gasp. Dr. Brinkley's promise to restore men's sexual prowess and stamina by transplanting goat glands, which is the subject of the book MAKING THEM BELIEVE is such a Concept. Cryogenics is, in my mind, very, very similar, in ts requirement of remarkable gulibilty and its bigness ise: immortality via return to life here on earth after being frozen upon death, and stored frozen, until a cure for what kiled you is avalable....inluding a cure for age itself. Uh-huh. Let me graft goat testicles to yours; let me store your corpse in the freezer and thaw you back out 10 or 100 years hence — both are big and bold. n politics, each reincarnation of communism/socialism including Obama's is a big concept, featuring re-distribution of wealth, an anti-Christian (Thou Shalt Not Steal), anti-American idea, and as practical matte, thoroughly, repetitively discredited idea, stil very saleable to the ignorant masses, often labeled as its opposite (egs. ‘economic justice’). Maybe The Biggest High Concept ever successfully mass- marketed is religions’ promise ofa pleasant, eternal afterife. For the most pat itis sold and bought entirely (on faith, in absence of any scientific or even anecdotal evidence, although there are people who strengthen their faith in the Concept by séances and channelers/psychics who help them connect with loved ones ‘who've gone onto the great beyond. It's important to recognize that all these examples have the same core: ‘an impossible, even ludicrous but extremely appealing, epic promise. (I jon you in hoping the last one cited turns out tobe real, however ludicrous it sounds if you can bring yourself to examine it objectively.) MYSTERY. Sometimes, something mysterious is injected into the Concept. Think LOST on TV - season, attempted with THE EVENT. In the opportunity market, Mystery-Concept is very often used, and used bilianty by my past client, T. J. Rohleder. The seimprovement Concept THE SECRET used ‘Mystery, even linking itself visually and descriptively to the popular novelimovie Da Vinci Code. This works for two basic reasons: one, the overwhelming majority of people believe in conspiracy theories, aliens fromcuter space, etc.; two, the existence of some mysterious, concealed secret than, if only it hadn't been kept from me, Idd be rich or thin, is a much more palatable idea that personal responsibilty DEMONSTRATION. For more on this, ead my No B.S. Wealth Attraction In The New Economy book. The best High Concepts lend themselves to visual/pictorial representation and to some physical demonstration. With Gold By The Inch, in under 60 seconds, we could show the GBI dealer set up at a swap meet, people walking up, picking out a chain, a close-up of him cutting the chain to measured size, the customer handing him a wad of cash, You got it. For al getsch-in-teal-estate pitches, you can show copies of checks depicting profits made on each deal. In print ads for any success concept, having the author standing next {o his luxury car infront of his mansion or on his yacht with a hot babe is demonstration, SHOCK VALUE from controversial or contrarian positioning. With Magnetic Marketing, for example, | told salespeople not o prospect - the polar opposite of what ther sales managers and 99% of sales trainers and speakers hammered them to do more of. For up-dated version of that rap, see pages 183-193, NO B.S, SALES SUCCESS IN THE NEW ECONOMY. Obviously, not all these elements can be combined in one High Concept, and itis generally unwise to try mamying too many. CBS' new Blue Bloods with serviceable Tom Selleck is family drama (egs. Brothers & Sisters) + Law&Order + conventional cop show + a bit of Lost, Fringe, etc, with sub-plot ofa secret society concealed in the police department, tied to the murder of Selleck’s son and the lead actor's brother. It feels over-loaded and weighed down to me. The Importance of Arriving as New This is not new at all. 've taught i for 30 years — often by pointing out thatthe importance of this to everybody evidenced by the #1 way we greet each other, with the question: ‘What's new?" — and never with the question: ‘what's the same with you as the last time | saw you?" Info-marketing consumers are — to the surprise and disappointment of most info marketers ~ not loyal to or retained by what works, but are easily seduced by what's new, even if unproven or even idiotic, and even if from a far less credible source. Regrettably, the intemet and its erasure of barriers to entry and final death blow to credibiity, the proliferation of free content, the destruction of attention span by the proliferation of media, ete. has only made this problem worse. Far worse. A career like Zig Ziglar's just isn't possible in today's environment, or at least, will be rare as integrity in Congress. | doubt you'll see another Earl Nightingale or, to be generous to myself in comparison, me in the decades to come — longevity of an influential thought- leader continually guiding in-depth exploration of a single area of subject matter was once the ambition of ambitions; now it is foolhardy. Instead, one must assemble a herd, then stay cone step ahead of its attention-deficit and lust for new, and that requires some very fast dancing....and, very candidly, makes the business less appealing the more this fact dominates. My personal opinion is, undoubtedly obvious; that this ‘condition’ is actualy a disease of disinterest in depth of knowiedge, that is destructive on a societal level. But that is quite irrelevant to the way in which you decide to make money in info-marketing Although late to be mentioning it here, | will be presenting a new way to arrive new in your market during a special break-out session at next month's INFO-Summit. If you've not registered and planned to attend, it’s doubtful you can how get in, but no harm in calling the Glazer-Kennedy office and trying. Maybe you can catch somebody in a weak moment. The reason I'm bringing this forwardow, the next wave of revolution in info-marketing, is: critical need. (IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE AT THE INFO-SUMMIT, SHAME ON YOU, BUT YOU CAN ASK ME TO SEND YOU THIS INFORMATION AHEAD OF IT BEING OFFERED TO ALL, BY FAXING ME @ 602-269-3113. If you are attending, do NOT miss my added break-out session.) | believe Registration for the INFO-Summit officially ends/ended October 15th, so there may be no registration info remaining at DanKennedy.com. To try and still get in, you'll need to call the Glazer-Kennedy HQ. in Baltimore at 410-825-8600. High Concept does not just apply to info-marketing, by the way ~ you'll see some consumer product examples in the October LOOK OVER MY SHOULDER. If you are alert for this, you can spot itin many, many places. There is a Pizza Hut campaign running now | like a lot, wth theme “This Is NOT Pizza.” Look for it. High Concept can even be used as a motivational and intimidation device — think the Steelers’ old “STEEL CURTAIN DEFENSE”, defined as such for benefit ofits members and to strike fear in hearts of opponents. High Concept can define persons or characters — most super-heroes are, themselves, High Concept. DAREDEVIL, as example, isa blind crime- fighter who uses acrobatic and martial arts prowess ; how much more of a High Concept would you like? A few mise. notes, quite unrelated to each other. I received a great deal of favorable feedback for the last Report, GAME-CHANGERS, and I'm told it has been subject of much discussion. Some say it’s best yet of all these Reports. I'm not sure if that’s true or not, but I did invest much effort in it and am pleased to hear of its influence. I have been shown implementation, too, which is even more rewarding. (Remember, ‘you can acquire the entire library of past Reports and/or past INFO-Letter issues from Robert ‘Skrob's office, Information Marketing Association, info-marketing.org. Cold, wintry nights are ‘coming, and this collection offers good reading for a few nights’ in favorite chair by the fireplace.) ‘Are you looking for something to use, to “stir the pot” and create interest amongst your members, customers, unconverted leads, for a tele-seminar (in which you can wind up promoting or pitching your stuff)? If you were on the September DIAMOND MEMBERS’ oall (Glazer-Kennedy), you heard my MAKING THEM BELIEVE co-author, Chip Kessler. He is available for your tele-seminars, requiring only promotion of the book, or able to sell the Home Study Course for revenue sharing, The Brinkley story, goat testicle transplants, and ‘making people believe’ certainly constitute High Concept. Also, my co-author of the Uncensored Sales Strategies book, Sydney Barrows, does a fine Job as tele-seminar guest, and offers a similarly “outrageous” background story. These are personalities, stories and Concepts ideal for use in drawing people out of the woodwork. Vicky @ my office, fax 602- 269-5118, can connect you with either or both. I recently did a tele-seminar for Chris Cardell, to which he pulled over 1,600 attendees. There are “new” topies you can use me with: the economy; the November elections; my next book on Price Strategies due out 1*t quarter 2011. ‘There has to be a big number and major promotion to Justify my time, but for right situation, too, am available.Partial List/High Concept Examples For Self: Small Business EMERGENCY SURVIVAL SYSTEM sNo B.S. / photo of Dan in business suit, siting on albino bull sMAGNETIC Marketing / Magnetic Marketing System Wealth MAGNETS Welcome Guest v. Annoying Pest sRENEGADE Millionaire / Renegade Millionaire System Behavioral Congruency Time Vampires «Immunity To Criticism (for The New Psycho-Cybemetios) “Marketing to the Affluent “RUTHLESS Management *Zero Resistance Seling “Takeaway Seling “The Phenomenon/Accomplish More In Next 12 Months Than Previous 12 Years Jumbo Results / photo of Dan on Jumbo The Elephant +..dn The New Economy Why do | always have to sit next tothe farting cat? Note: mucha he above protected by publishes’ copyrihis,pubishes owners raderarks and radar regstatons, tnd has been ‘success defended at expense thse inking, Copy and vademerkningemens subject ci AND cxnina pena, valved ublshersindude Enepreneu Press ~Enrerenew Magazine, Pengun, Sinan & Schuster, Person, Glazer Kennedy inside’ Cl LLC, Kennedy mer cl he, and Kenney Lio Assocs, For Clients: “YOU, A Milionaire? (Tolleson) +$399.00 To $3,999.00 In One Weekend (U.S. Gold/Gold By The Inch) How To Make $4,000.00 A Day, Siting At Your Kitchen Table, in Your Underwear (Paul) +The Staff-Driven Practice (Stanley) “Call a FSBO ~ go to Jail (Craig Proctor)