Without the Colonel, we probably wouldn’t know Elvis.
Colonel Tom Parker was Elvis’s manager from 1956 on.
He made Elvis a household name, and he made himself very rich in the process.
For example, back in 1956, the Colonel signed a merchandising deal to produce a bunch of Elvis tchotchkes, everything from charm bracelets to bookends to stuffed “hound dogs.”
By the end of that year, this contract had already brought in $22 million dollars.
Good. But not great.
After all, not everybody was feeling swept away by Elvis mania — and not everybody was buying Elvis bobby-sox!
No problem .
The Colonel even came up with the idea of selling badges that read “I hate Elvis” and “Elvis is a jerk” — for that other half of the population.
Which I think is a great marketing lesson.
Of course, your product probably doesn’t inspire love or hate on a nation-wide level. And it probably doesn’t make sense to start selling the opposite of what you currently sell.
But the same mindset can apply.
Rather than looking at your detractors and wringing your hands about how they don’t like you, do what 9-figure direct marketing wizard Joe Sugarman used to do:
Look at every problem as an opportunity.
For example, back when Joe was running his Consumers Hero membership program (which sold refurbished goods at cut-throat prices), he got a nasty letter from a disgruntled customer who said he wanted to cancel his membership because the merchandise was junk.
Joe published this bad feedback in the regular Consumer Hero newsletter. He added how he doesn’t really agree, and in any case, he and his team keep striving to do better. And then he went on to talk about all the good news stuff they had in the pipeline.
Just something to consider if you have a business and you’re running your own marketing.
Another thing to consider:
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