The Game & Lifestyle Epiphany

[Ankesh]

Originally Posted by -TW

Who is a bigger magnet than McDonald's? Yet they advertise. Why?

Because if they were to stop advertising, they would go out of business.

McDonalds India does no advertising. Yet its doing better every year since it opened.

The reason is: location. In India (at least in Mumbai) they've opened McDonalds only near train stations (Mumbai has some of the worlds busiest local train stations). And one is near the expressway toll that you have to go through to go out of Mumbai by road.

I think Starbucks is another brand that doesn't advertise. (But I may be wrong.)

As I see it, good marketing = Impact * Repetition.

You're a big proponent of repetition and bugging people out. I say if you work on your impact, you don't have to repeat your message that often. If your message is not that impactful, you have to repeat. A lot.

But by lifestyle-ing - what I'm trying to say is: how do you become the ultimate authority in your field?

How do you make your message (and yourself) so impactful - that other people do the repetition for you?

If its your birthday - you just need 2-3 people to know about it. They will wish you - others will see them wish you - and these others will come and wish you too. And that will make you the focus of attention in the room - and more girls will come to you because of that social proof that they witness.

Hugh Hefner has created a life for him where everyday is his birthday.

Eg: Jay Abraham. He didn't have to come on this forum and talk about himself. Some one (Don) did it for him!

How do you become the Jay Abraham? Or Hugh Hefner? Or even Harvard University? Or -- Paddi Lund*?

Paddi Lund = the dentist who fired half his clients, stopped advertising completely, and takes on new clients only on referrals. Reduced his workload by half and doubled his revenue. And has a long list of people clamoring and contacting his current clients to refer them to him.

The question is: What can TW do so that when a question about USP arises on forums, people say: oh you should contact TW? Or what can TW do so that no one even thinks of ripping off an idea from him?

If you think sending out a million mail pieces is the answer, then please state that. I wouldn't disagree with that. I think that could work. It may not be the best way imho. But it definitely can work.

Lets not get into Push or Pull. Or Direct marketing or branding. Lets use the word and.

Then lets move on and discuss a few more answers / opinions.

(TW - I know you can find a 101 different things to argue about this post. But lets do that some other day. Please just state what do you think we should do to become the Hefners of our industry? If you think trying to become the Hefners of our industry is a bad idea, then please reserve that comment for some other day so that this thread doesn't get hijacked with that never ending argument.)