A very important rule in magic (the real kind, not the one that creates 700 billion, ha!) states, that the real magic starts after the trick is done.
When a trick is performed correctly, the audience will go home and add stuff to the trick that was not there, but does enhance the trick.
Once home they face their audience and at that moment their own biases kick in. The trick grows, from a simple sleight of hand, to three lions and a midget bellydancer. The real magic starts after the trick.
The magic is in the story. It is the delight that the teller has in building on the groundworks laid by the magician, it's the delight the listener has in hearing the story, half shaking his head, knowing the story is probably bollocks, but kicking himself anyways for not going. It's the simple act of having something interesting to tell somebody else. That's the real deal the audience paid for. Not the trick.
So should we, as marketeers keep this in mind. The real story starts after the trick is done. Whether this means handling the client by giving him what he wants, but not how he wanted it, or by making sure that the products we sell are more then just one layer.
So much stuff is about the story we sell. But in actual fact it's the story they tell. So when done correctly, their work will do the business for you. And often in these jaded times, it's not about the, shouty, over the top, disruptive, big thing.
How are you gonna build on that? It's so distant and leaves nothing to the imagination. It's gone, but you don't buy it. The reaction is: ok, how did he do that? you go all CSI and start deconstructing it. The trick did not pull you in, it just triggered an reaction to disprove it.
It's about the up close and personal small gestures. They stop us in our habit driven lives and catch our imagination and give us permission to build upon them and make life interesting. Bold trumps big these days. In these days of obiquitousness and larger than life events that our minds can't comprehend, you gotta feel it to believe it.
And like anything in else in our lives, nothing feels stronger than the stuff that happens close to home.
