By now, you’ve probably already heard and seen this photo on Facebook about the social experiment that the Washington Post conducted with one of the nation’s greatest musicians playing in a subway while in disguise.
If you haven’t read about it or seen the photo, you can check out the actual Washington Post article and video here.
One of the main conclusions drawn from the experiment was that people generally tend to ignore the simple things in life, such as the beauty of music. However, something stood out more to me than anything else which is very relevant to ALL OF US who have an Internet business, or any business for that matter.
The underlying lesson is that it’s not about the product, service, talent, or person. It’s all about the marketing!
The musician playing in the subway was one of the nation’s greatest! But you know what? No one cared! It’s because no one knew him. No one knew he was important. He was playing the same exact music that critics declare as musical masterpieces yet no one even stopped to listen.
What does this all mean for us? It doesn’t matter how talented you are or I am, or how good our products may be. . . It’s all about the marketing. Not the product. Without the right marketing, and without establishing or framing yourself as an authority, no one will ‘stop and listen’. In other words, no one will care about you or your product.
I bet you that if the people in the subway knew that the musician was famous, they would have stopped, listened, and respected him.
It’s all about how you market and frame yourself. Keep that in mind as you start or grow your Internet business. You need to make yourself or your company stand out from the competition through effective marketing, not just a ‘different’ product.
Make sense? What do you think?
