I just got off the phone with my timeshare company (booking travel to attend the seminar I told you about last week) and am reminded of how I came to own a timeshare contract.
I never dreamed that I would own a timeshare. But one day about 4 years ago we responded to one of those 3 full days in a vacation spot ads because our kids needed a vacation. We did it knowing fully what we were facing - after all, if we can't say no to a high-pressure salesperson, then nobody can.
Eventually the time came for the obligatory visit to the salesperson. I sat down, folded my arms, leaned back, crossed my legs and adopted the strongest "I'm not listening" body language I could muster. My goal was to communicate only in grunts and to be kicked out of there in 30 minutes or less.
The salesperson started out by asking about our family. Since I could only grunt, my wife explained about our 3 kids. He asked how many vacations we'd spent together over the last 3 years; this was the first that wasn't family-reunion or wedding-of-siblings related.
As I remember, the next twenty minutes were focused on questions like:
"Wouldn't you like to be spending quality time building memories together every year, in a quality resort, away from the cares of the world?"
"I bet you're not taking as much time together as you would like to. How much is it worth to you to have a lifetime of memories of family and being together?"
I think you get the drift...
I walked out of the office 90 minutes later as a timeshare owner.
Grunting didn't work.
What changed my mind? This bright salesperson shifted the playing field on me. I thought we were going to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of timeshare ownership and had a whole set of arguments against it. He talked instead about family, memories, love and happiness together.
That's the one area that I couldn't argue against.
He redefined the playing field, removing the argument from the facts that I wanted to discuss onto the area where he knew he could win. This enabled him to take control of the argument and push it into the areas that worked for him.
This is a key PR principle.
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A great example of this is in Iran, where the public opinion has been steered to the point where when one group of dissident Islams bombs another, somehow it is the United States' fault.
This is being reinforced by repetition, my favorite of which was the arrival of people passing out leaflets blaming the US literally seconds after the major bombings of a few days ago.
There is clearly a group who has defined the playing field in a certain way, and it is working. And the US has played right into it.
That's the power of this principle.
Keys to owning the buzz by defining the playing field include:
1. Be first into the fray
The group that is first to get the public's attention usually either controls the conversation or creates points that must be answered by others in the discussion.
Bush is attempting to do it right now, running millions of dollars of advertising in key battlefield states and giving stump speeches to shift the Presidential discussion to the areas he wants to talk about.
One key to doing this is to ensure that your physical and online media kits clearly state the playing field you have chosen. Included in your kit should be several position papers, providing information on 7 Keys to ______, How to choose a ____, etc. that establish, presuppose, and support your playing field.
To learn more about media kits, see Electronic Media Kits: How to Create Them, Deliver Them and See INSTANT Results
and Media Kits On A Shoestring: How To Create Them Without Spending A Bundle
2. Be loudest
Even if you're not the first, it's possible to wrest control of the conversation by drawing more attention to your argument than your opponents. Usually this is done through advertising, but it can be done through PR. It's best done through a combination of the two.
3. Be controversial
Controversy begets coverage. Ralph Nader's 2000 candidacy for the US president is a good example.
4. Be emotional
By this I don't mean crying on camera, I mean creating an appeal that strikes to the emotional heart of the issue. This seems to be what's working in Iraq right now. Logic says that the bombings aren't the U.S.'s fault, but the people rightfully feel unprotected, the U.S. is the major force in the area, so it must be their fault. The emotional argument is beating the logical one.
5. Be visual
TV is visual. The group that pulls off the visual and audio soundbyte combination will almost always win over the one that only has a still shot. How can you create a visual scene for your story pitch?
6. Be funny
Be careful, because humor can backfire, but it does get coverage. For example, when GE Medical announced this week that it was building a new headquarters building in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, the one scene that got shown on the evening news here in Wisconsin was the CEO saying something like "lastly, we were looking for a site in a city with a name that was easy to pronounce, spell, and remember. Wauwatosa was that place."
(I don't know what exactly the name Wauwatosa means, but I think it's something like "land where spring flowers don't bloom before June.")
7. Be consistent, repetitious and refuse to shift the playing field back
Just watch the great interviewees on talk shows. No matter what the question, the answer is their purpose for being there. "What you're really asking is ______, and the answer is _______."
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