Lessons on how to win with a hook and an under promise.
By Amber Hudson and Luke Sklar
At SW&A we’ve been exploring mindfulness (read our blog here). One of the books a few of us are reading is 10% Happier by Dan Harris. He’s the man who, when reading a news segment on Good Morning America, had a panic attack on live television. This started his journey into meditation.
What I love about the book is he’s not promising Total! Complete! Utter bliss! Not even A lot more or even Partial happiness. He’s only promising 10% more. In a world where self-help books are trafficking complete life-overhauls it’s refreshing to see something, well, honest in its under promise. It’s a great book with a great hook.
Allow me to sidestep to another under promise…the Pan Am Games. It’s low key, humble, and without pretense of being the holy grail of athletics. But it’s still world class sports celebrating our great country. Sure, it lacks the cool hook (where’s the Pan Am version of We The North?). But we think because of its under promise it’ll do just fine.
So the lesson for marketers is, whether you’re looking to win with internal stakeholders or your customers, don’t over promise and find yourself a good hook.