Would you like to achieve fame and recognition? Here's a true story which could help you get your start! I know about the details of this story first-hand....

An Incredible True Story

Professor Charles Osborne and his two collaborators, Andrew Tirkel and Ron van Schyndel, are all scientists. They simply wanted to be well-known for their research work. But the principle they used to achieve this can be applied by anybody.

They had put in a lot of effort in their work, and they felt that a little bit of recognition could go a long way. As you may recognize, this is a marketing problem, even though none of these people were in marketing. But the results went far beyond their modest expectations!

These three people had been working on a way of encoding a "signature" of data in digital images. That is, they were working on some kind of hidden "code" in the digital image, which others would not be able to see, but which you could recognize if you had the right software and you knew what to look for. Let me tell you about one of the extraordinary people behind these developments, Professor Charles Osborne.

An Amazing Mentor

I've had several important mentors in my life, and Charles Osborne is one of them. He's a physicist, working in the Physics Department of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. However, he's often a bit unconventional in his ideas, you might say. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he left his more mundane research on the physics of solids, to engage in research on ESP -- which brought a lot of controversy!

Charles felt that, as as scientist, the possibility of psychic phenomena was something to be studied, not to be completely ignored. He did his own direct research studies on ESP, with some controversial results. He even had a debate on Australian television with the well-known skeptic James Randi. With this kind of work, Professor Osborne came under a lot of attack from the more conservative people within his own department. After threats to his livelihood from within the university, Professor Osborne quietly dropped the research on ESP and looked for a way to redeem himself in the eyes of academia. A big success would go a long way.

Where do I fit in this story? Charles Osborne was also my Ph.D. advisor, in the area of quantum physics.

But Charles is an incredibly diverse guy. His other research was with encoding "hidden" data in images.

They Coined The Phrase...

These three researchers, Charles Osborne, Andrew Tirkel, and Ron van Schyndel, needed a phrase, a term to use which would encapsulate what they were doing. Something snappy. They discussed it, and argued, and discussed it again. Finally, they hit upon a term they all agreed upon. It was "cool," it made sense, it was catchy.

They'd call their hidden "signature" a "digital watermark".

The "digital watermark" has been mentioned in the news media, in business magazines, in computer magazines, in your local newspaper. Here's how it happened (and how this can benefit you).

The next year, in 1994, Professor Osborne and his two collaborators presented a talk, titled "A Digital Watermark", at a major engineering conference -- the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing -- in Austin, Texas. This was the first ever mention of the term "digital watermark" in human history. It was an important moment.

But at first -- nothing happened.

Things went quiet for a while. Was anybody noticing their work, or was it being ignored? They began to fret. But then....

Suddenly, everything snowballed. More and more people started using the term "digital watermark" to describe a method of encoding data as a way of recognizing "ownership" of an image. Before too long, it started to become adapted to other forms of digital storage, like music. Big companies started doing their own research in the area.

The Popular Press

After a few years, talk of "digital watermarks" hit the popular press. In 1997, the phrase "digital watermark" appeared in Business Week. If you do a search online, you'll find it mentioned everywhere, on news sites (like cnn.com), in PC magazines, and in your daily paper.

What did this mean for these three people who coined the phrase?

Well, they were research scientists, not marketers, so their goal was recognition for their work. As a result, they didn't trademark their phrase, as might have happened if they were in it more for the profit. But here's what they did get out of it.

An Important Piece Of Wisdom

I still talk to Charles Osborne regularly, as I worked closely with him for over four years on my own physics research (in a different area). Charles told me something not long ago, which I want to share....

He said (and I quote), "He who coins the term becomes the guru."

By this he means, if you coin a term and everyone starts using it, you'll become recognized as an expert.

He's found this to be the case. He's had many offers to do other kinds of work, to leave the physics department and switch over to areas like engineering and robotics, for example. He's turned them all down, because his goals are more intellectual, rather than monetary. Without a doubt, Professor Osborne has more than "redeemed" himself in the eyes of his peers who criticized his ESP work -- since he's now more famous than they are, within their fields of research.

And it's clear that having been the one who coined the phrase "digital watermark" (plus some good research to back it up) has opened up many options for him.

What This Means For You

What does this mean for you? It means, take some care choosing your brands! The "right" name could be the difference between success or failure!

As you may know, Gordon is starting a new course on "Instant Fame and Fortune" -- the FameBrand marketing course! The first lesson is free.... You can sign up for it at www.sowpub.com/famebrand.htm . Gordon "coined" many words we use, terms like "chatteling" for example. We all recognize him as one of the leading experts in these fields.... Gordon knows about this principle too, which my other mentor Charles Osborne stumbled upon by accident.

In a recent post, Gordon wrote this about FAME.... He said (and I quote), "But I think (fame) goes beyond that for the marketer, it is OWNING a word or concept in your prospect's mind." See how this relates to Charles Osborne's story?

Believe it or not, Shakespeare used this principle too. Does it sound far-fetched? Think of this....

Shakespeare is reported to have coined over 1700 words which we commonly use in English -- words like "advertising," "amazement," "majestic," and "tranquil." Is it a coincidence that he's considered one of the greatest "experts" in the use of English in history?

Hope you enjoyed the story.... More stories (like this one) will be included in the Seeds of Wisdom Newsletter -- sign up for it at the top of the forum!

Dien Rice