Marilyn Monroe
June 24th, 2009
A billion women came before Marilyn Monroe. A billion have come after.
But she has never shared the stage, the life stage, with anyone. She is a timeless beauty, an exotic wonder woman, a sexual shockwave, an object of universal lust. And an extraordinary business lesson.
No woman ever stood in a room with Marilyn and felt beautiful. No man ever shared her presence and felt sane. She stole the heart of the most heroic athlete of her time, Joe DiMaggio–himself an American icon. She captured the soul of the greatest American playwright, Arthur Miller. She married them both and then she moved on to Camelot and wrapped the Commander-In-Chief, JFK, around her finger.
Marilyn is of no distinct period in history. She is known to teenagers and seniors alike, urban and rural, Elton John (who sings beautifully about her) and Vladmir Putin, (who has watched her films). The world loves Marilyn. Even those who pretend they are too smart and sophisticated to admit they do.
Marilyn Monroe is irresistible.
I watched a news story this morning on CNBC reporting on crowds lining up in the wee hours to buy the newly discounted iPhone. Why would they do that? Why did thousands do the same when the product was first introduced. Why have so many millions bought them when they already had phones?
Because Steve Jobs has always understood Marilyn Monroe. He has spent his entire career making sure he wasn’t selling things people liked.
Like is a commodity. Love is a force and a barrier to entry. Great marketing always finds a way to transition a product, a company, from like to love. If the marketing fails to do that, the marketing is just a glorified way of going through the motions.
I want to live in a world surrounded only by people and things that intoxicate me. Unfortunately, there are no such pure plays, but I am bored to tears when I have to spend time in the land of like. So I search out the people and things I can be passionate about– and like a soldier carrying his girlfriends picture into battle–I think of them. Amazing how they cast a glow that makes everything more beautiful.
Every time you wonder how you can make your business better, resist the temptation to read a treatise from Harvard Business School.
Look at a picture of Marilyn Monroe.
Mark Stevens
CEO
Tags: better business, Business, ceo, harvard business school, iphone, iphone 3g s, iphone 3gs, lesson, marilyn monroe, mark stevens, Marketing, msco, passionate, product launch, Steve Jobs
June 25th, 2009 at 6:27 am
Hello,
I have been reading your blog for a few weeks now, it has been refreshing and revitalizing. It so unfortunate that as marketers, as a community we have become so compromised that such thoughts have become “unconventional”. What happened to being BOLD and explicit, striving for greatness, making dreams reality…
With new and emerging technology, and tremendous insight into our target market(s) I find it highly offensive that so many marketers seize at the chance of taking risk and being innovative instead of relishing in the opportunity to showcase their passion and desire to persuade and create value.
Maybe PASSION has been replaced with SECURITY…
Casey Davy
June 27th, 2009 at 4:09 am
[...] Mark Stevens is, I believe, the only blogger who’s ever made me cry. Oh, I’ve sniffled at a few posts here and there around blog-o-land, and many thanks if you’re one of the folks who’s made me reach for a tissue, but at the Unconventional Thinking blog (from the author of one of my all-time favorite books, Your Marketing S**ks), one day you’re reading between the lines, taking notes on ways to dig deeper for your business’ growth; the next day, you’re reexamining your whole. darn. life. And maybe just once, crying your doggone eyes out for a million happy and sad reasons. That’s just how Mark writes. He’s an unstoppable thought-powerhouse. [...]