the bigger it gets,
the bigger the team,
the lengthier the list of software,
the more money,
the more responsibilities,
the more forceful the pressure to make (more) money,
the more we lose track of the obvious.
Obvious Adams by Robert Updegraff is a pillar book in marketing, we should all revisit with every trip to the bathroom.
if you haven’t yet read it, the premise of the book is “keep it simple, stupid”
writing must be simple,
product must be simple,
offer must be simple.
simple ≠ easy.
I found my most favorite example of this rule in a very unlikely place…
a farmer’s market in romania.
much like every other country, romania has different areas known to produce the best X product.
portugal has porto wine.
colombia has coffee.
dăbuleni has watermelons.
as a result, seemingly every single watermelon sold in romania comes from dăbuleni.
which makes me think that the sellers are either
A. lying or
B. lying.
I can tell you from personal experience that there’s nothing funnier than seeing a sea of watermelons at the farmer’s market with well designed “dăbuleni” signs on them.
as if screaming “I’m special, just like everyone else”
(the above is a great metaphor for what happens with most products in the market at the moment)
if all watermelons come from dăbuleni then no watermelons come from dăbuleni.
so what does this watermelon grower do?
something genius.
he takes a copy of his ID, that clearly states his city of residence, dăbuleni, and amplifies it 100 times over to create a massive banner.
he had the biggest queue in the whole market, here’s the legend in action.
keep it simple, stupid.
today is day 196 of the year, there are 169 days remaining of 2022.
