Selling the Invisible: a field Guide to Modern Marketing \(Biz Books to Go\) pdfdrive com

First, before you write an ad, rent a list, dash off a press release—fix your
service.
The Lake Wobegon Effect: Overestimating Yourself
The Average American thinks he isn’t,” someone once said. Psychologists have
proved it.
We think we’re better than we are.
When researchers asked students to rate their ability to get along with others,
60 percent rated themselves in the top 10 percent. Ninety-four percent of
university professors say they are doing a better job than their average colleague.
Most men think they are good-looking.
Our illusions of superiority are so widespread that psychologists have come
up with a name for it. They call it the Lake Wobegon Effect, after Garrison
Keillor’s famous radio show sign-off from his fictional hometown, Lake
Wobegon, “where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of
the children are above average.”
Being human, everyone in your company suffers from the Lake Wobegon
effect, too. You think you are better than you are—and that your service is better
than it is.
Service in this country is so bad that you can offer above average service and
still stink. By definition, the odds are that you’re average.

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Assume your service is bad. It can’t hurt, and it will force you to improve.
Those Cartoons Aren’t Funny
You’ve seen the Quality, Service, Price, Pick One signs, and the You Want It
When? cartoons. (Not surprisingly, it’s the worst services that are most likely to
display these cartoons.)
When I see these cartoons, which suggest that customers expect too much, I
always tell the clerk, “I’m going to talk to a couple other places before I decide.”
But I have decided. I’m not coming back.
If you decide that you cannot offer quality, speed, and price, you’re not trying
hard enough.
How can McDonald’s deliver spotless rest rooms and world-class french fries
in 50 seconds for 79 cents?