So What Powerful Marketing Message Can You Possibly Learn From The Classic Movie Cool Hand Luke?
Did you ever see the classic Hollywood blockbuster movie “A Few Good Men?” Starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Kevin Pollack, and the one and only “Jack Nicoholson.” Jack” (as you may recall) played the gruffy old school, tough as nails Colonel Nathan Jessup.
And in the movie as you recall, things get a little heated between JAG (Judge Advocate General’s Corps) lawyer Tom Cruises character and the old school iron fisted, “I did it my way” Colonel Jessup. Prompting Jack to deliver one of his single greatest lines of his entire career!
When he bellowed out at cruises character, “You can’t handle the truth!” Well, believe it or not, years before “Jack” belted out his classic line. There was another iconic Hollywood movie legend hunk (that unfortunately) is now deceased.
But legendary screen hunk (the late great) “Paul Newman” starred in a classic movie called “Cool Hand Luke”, and in that movie (see the accompanying extremely short video), a classic line that went like this, “what we have here is a failure to communicate” was echoed throughout the movie.
And it’s that classic line that served as the inspiration for this particular post. Because (sadly) and far too often, many otherwise extremely savvy entrepreneurs, fail (miserably) to thoroughly communicate exactly what is they intend to do!
And as you’ll soon discover in the remainder of this post. It’s that consistent failure to do so, that is definitely hurting their cause and harming their long term reputation and overall chances for lasting long term success as well!
So What Exactly Is This Extremely Powerful Marketing Lesson That Can Be Discovered Simply By Watching Paul Newman’s Classic Movie Cool Hand Luke?
Here’s the very first (and probably) most profound and extremely practical marketing/business lesson that you can (and should) gain from that classic line from “Cool Hand Luke”, about failing to communicate.
Entrepreneur, if your current free lead generating offer, ) “what the heck do you mean you don’t currently have any type of free list building offer?”) on (if nothing else) the right or left sidebar of the home page of your (hopefully) state of the art WordPress blog!
Anyway, if you’re using the really generic and way too non specific approach , that simply says “sign up for (either) my free newsletter and or free weekly tips etc.
By doing so, you’re basically offering to periodically share some of your proven (presumably) extremely valuable secrets via your free newsletter and or tips updates etc. Right?
Well, if that’s the case. And hopefully it is!
Nowhere in either your (all important) first follow up email message (and or), in any of your subsequent follow up email (and or) offline snail mail follow up messages did you indicate that you would be sending (more like) constantly bombarding your brand new subscriber with a flood of email (or snail mail) pitches (disguised as so called daily or weekly updates!) Did you?
Now granted, nobody can stay in business without selling products and services and therefore earning some type of profit!
But, that’s not why your subscribers signed up, did they? And you never once fully and totally explained your real intentions in any of your subsequent follow up email (or offline) messages, did you? I can’t imagine why?
So you see, ladies & gentlemen, “what we have here is a failure to communicate!” Don’t you agree? Or what about this all too classic marketing scenario.
Your Failure To Adequately Spell Out Your True Long Term Intentions Definitely Hurts Your Long Term Credibility And Chances For Overall Success!
(Not to single out and or pick on any Mom & Pop restaurant owners per se!) But “how” many times have you personally been involved in and or been personally affected by the following all too common occurrence.
You enter one of your favorite local (family style) Mom & Pop type of restaurants (and or copying centers) and the savvy owners have a giant fish bowl on the counter and they encourage you (us) to drop our business card in the bowl for a chance to win (either) a weekly and or monthly drawing of some kind, where we might win one or several free and or greatly discounted, really cool prizes of some kind.
That’s cool and it definitely sounds familiar, right? And so we do. And they choose their winners and strategically follow up with the rest of us and offer some extremely valuable secondary prizes etc.
You’ve probably entered one or two of those types of offers before, right? Who hasn’t! (And BTW, if you’re not systematically using free drawings of some kind (especially) offline, in order to strategically and rather inexpensively build your very own subscriber list.
You are definitely missing a tremendous long term potential money making opportunity! Anyway, not soon after you enter the free drawing, low and behold, you start receiving email messages from this particular sponsor of the free drawing. Say what?
Spam By Any Other Method Is Still Spam!
Now, (before we go any further) entrepreneur, see if you can successfully unscramble the following word. M a p s, (if you guessed spam, you are correct da mundo! ) If you didn’t please try again!
Ladies & gentlemen, just because they entered your free drawing by leaving their business card in your fish bowl and your business card also just happens to have your email address on it.
That doesn’t give you the right to load those email addresses into your paid autoresponder service, without having them actually opt in (join ) your list! That’s spam cadets! Period!
And once again, “what we have here is a failure to communicate!” Don’t you agree? So there is most certainly a lot that can (and should be) learned from Paul Newman’s classic movie. What say you?
Please share your extremely valuable comments (in the comments section below) that you can apply to your business, product or service in the next 30 days or less!
As always, if you got any value out of this post, please Digg or tweet this.Thanks!
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Hey Mark,
I had to smile when I read this because we can learn a lot from movies and how people handle and manage situations. I took a management class once and our instructor used the movie “12 O’clock High” to demonstrate how situations can be effectively managed. Learned a lot from that.
Anyway, getting to the point of your post we really do miss the mark on communication. I’ve seen marketers take advantage of an audience often just by what they don’t say.
It’s important to be clear about what you offer and don’t offer and make sure your audience understands it as well. Because when it comes to your market, perception is everything.
Nice post Mark,
Liz
Liz McGee recently posted…Powerful Mind Success Strategies For Bloggers
That’s so true Liz!
And thank you for your extremely kind words of encouragement. That really
means a lot coming from such an experienced and successful online blogger/marketer
such as yourself.
Also, you’ve shared another very important (albeit) subtle point.That being
sometimes what’s not said is by a marketer is equally, if not more important to your chances
for long term success!
That is so key as well. I may just have to do a sequel post based on what
you just shared! It’s really that important!LOL!
Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your extremely valuable thoughts Liz!
I definitely appreciate it!!
Mark Newsome recently posted…Three Incredibly Simple Reasons Why All Serious Entrepreneurs Need To Get Out Of Debt Fast!
Great topic Mark! And funny thing is just this morning I unsubscribed from a list I joined just 2 weeks ago. In that short span of time I received 10 (seriously, 10!) emails that had nothing to do with the “newsletter” I signed up for but were promoting a training course – the subject line of the last 3 emails messages were “LAST CHANCE – ACT NOW!” except if it really was the “LAST” chance why did they keep sending it?
The only thing they accomplished was making themselves sound sad and desperate. It’s not that I don’t expect some of that, but this was clearly overkill. As always, great reading Mark!
Marquita Herald recently posted…A Very Inspiring Blogger Award
It’s sad but so true M!
And I’d bet you dimes to doughnuts, these are the very same people that would
be too through if the exact same thing happened to them!LOL!
Or “what” about “hurry this exclusive offer can be pulled at anytime!”
Yea, right!LOL! I don’t M, call it lousy marketing or a lack of a moral compass,
but something is desperately wrong in situations like that!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your extremely valuable thoughts!
And for your continuous support! I truly appreciate both!
Mark Newsome recently posted…Three Incredibly Simple Reasons Why All Serious Entrepreneurs Need To Get Out Of Debt Fast!
Hi Mark,
I have not seen the movies but I do know that communication can be difficult and can create gaps in any type of relationship. Unfortunately, these skills aren’t really taught in schools…very few of us get the opportunity to learn the kind of communication skills we need to excel in business and life.
Rachel Lavern recently posted…Running Your Small Business without Outside Financing
That is a really great point Rachel!
And we both know all too well, that the University of Reality,
is most times far more expensive and far more intense then merely
investing a few dollars in some type course and or training etc!
Often times, formal education is indeed a great starting point, but it far too
many times falls way too short, in terms of adequately preparing one for the “real world!”LOL!
Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your real world experience!
And for your continuous support!I truly appreciate both!
Mark Newsome recently posted…So What Powerful Marketing Message Can You Possibly Learn From The Classic Movie Cool Hand Luke?
Hi Mark. Funny, I just came over from another blog about spam. And I think it comes down to the fact that people like to buy, but they don’t like to be sold.
One of my biggest complaints is people whose products I purchase. They tell me I need to sign up for their email list so I can get all the important product updates. Then all I get are emails pitching me to buy something else. Unsubscribe.
Thanks for this reminder to be honest and ethical business people.
All the best,
Leslie
Leslie Denning recently posted…The Blog Economy
Absolutely Leslie!
For some odd reason, some online marketers, but especially green horn newbies
seem to think that being ethical and above board in terms of dealing with your
potential prospects, customers and clients, only applies to the offline world!
That’s big mistake! And I’m just like you, when i purchase something and or subscribe to
a so called newsletter, then I start getting bombarded with nothing but spammy type of
email blast, I ether stop opening their emails or simply unsubscribe!
Great point and thanks for stopping by to share it!
Mark Newsome recently posted…So What Powerful Marketing Message Can You Possibly Learn From The Classic Movie Cool Hand Luke?
Mark, Once again you have offered some valuable advice on how to properly market your business with integrity. If you are not upfront and honest with your list subscribers about how you will communicate with them by email and market your services then you will not develop a long term relationship built on trust and honesty which is so crucial for a successful business. Thanks so much for sharing your insights!
Shelley Alexander recently posted…Blood Orange Cherry Turmeric Milk
You’re welcome Shelley!
And thank you for your extremely kind words of encouragement!
And you are so right, about the potential negative consequences of not
honestly communicating our true intentions with our subscribers!
I think we’ve both experienced similar situations with overly aggressive marketers,
that are totally upfront with how they intend to market to us!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts! They are greatly appreciated!
Mark Newsome recently posted…So What Powerful Marketing Message Can You Possibly Learn From The Classic Movie Cool Hand Luke?