Last night was the first time I’ve ever walked out of a movie theater.
I nervously edged forward in my seat… I clutched my jacket and my backpack… I waited for the end of the scene… and then I gritted my teeth and pushed through the long row of legs and their groaning owners and the boxes of popcorn these leg-owners were holding.
Once I had tripped and stumbled over all these people, I made my way through the darkened theater, out the emergency exit, and out into a world of light and air and freedom.
I asked myself later what had happened to me. After all, I’ve suffered through worse movies than this, the 2021 version of Dune. Why did I decide to bolt this time?
Maybe it was the fact it was my first time in a movie theater in over two years.
Maybe it was the movie itself. After all, compare the same line from the mysterious 1984 version, which I like a lot, to this present, lifeless version:
“Not in the mood? Mood’s a thing for cattle and loveplay, not fighting!”
— Dune (1984)
“Mood? What’s mood to do with it? You fight when the necessity arises, no matter the mood!”
— Dune (2021)
So yeah, there were those reasons. But I realized what the biggest reason was simply:
I had gone to see this movie by myself.
I’m in transit between two cities. I had some free time, and a few people had recommended this new Dune. So I decided to go to the movies, even though I had no one to go with.
It turned out to be a rare blessing.
I didn’t have to bribe, convince, or beg anyone to agree with me. I didn’t have to look over to my movie partner, look imploringly at the exit, and then look back, trying to see if the person next to me understood that now’s time to get up and get the hell out, and avoid wasting two more hours of perfectly good life.
In my experience, that’s often not the case. Not when it comes to movie going. And not when it comes to life in general.
I recently wrote about the many hooks that keep people stuck in the status quo. Even when the status quo is dull, sepia-toned, and threatens to drag on endlessly, like this new version of Dune.
Well, other people are the most powerful of these hooks, both directly and indirectly.
That’s an unavoidable fact of life. And it’s something you will have to deal with in your marketing.
So my point for you is this:
Many marketing gurus will try to sell you new tricks to help you agitate the spleen out of your prospect. The idea being, once you get somebody in the right mood, he will finally take action.
A dangerous mistake, I say.
In the words of Jonah Berger, instead of asking what would encourage change, ask why things haven’t changed already.
And if you are trying to get your prospect to take real-world action… or make a transformation in his life… or just make a really big purchase, which might end up helping him… then think about other people in his life. And somewhere in your marketing, equip your prospect to deal with these other people.
Give your prospect a buying system, not a mood. After all, there’s a world of light and air and freedom at stake.
Now, in a moment, I’ll give you a chance to transform your life, by signing up to my email newsletter and getting a steady stream of valuable persuasion and marketing ideas.
But you might think how your spouse, kids, or wife might react if they see you reading yet another newsletter on your phone, when you should be paying attention to them.
When they try to make you feel guilty about it, tell yourself, and them if you like, that it’s a temporary sacrifice, so you can build a better life for all of you.
But that’s all assuming you sign up to my newsletter. It’s not for everyone. But maybe it is for you. If you want to find out, here’s where to go.