Olympic Sized Lessons
What Business Owners Can Learn From Presidential Olympic Speeches.
A Presidential Lesson for Business Owners
What lessons can business owners learn about marketing their company from the US's recent attempt at winning the bid for the 2016 Olympics in Chicago? The President and First Lady gave speeches that were intended to seal the deal with the Olympic Committee. It was a full court press of marketing pressure.
So what happened?
Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting with an exceptionally low vote count 18 votes out of a possible 94.
There are lessons to be learned...
LESSON #1 No matter how talented a communicator your sales person is, a bland message will usually fall flat. The President's ten minute speech just wasn't that interesting.
Decide for yourself. Watch the video.
LESSON #2 Always remember that the customer doesn't really care about you. They care about themselves. If all you do is talk about yourself (or your product), the customer quickly loses interest. The marketing criticism leveled at the First Couple's speeches is that the Obamas mainly spoke about themselves. They missed the mark regarding what was important to the committee. Proof of self-talk is the frequent use of first person pronouns. Check out the tally from the First Couple's speeches:
President Obama - 10 Minute Speech
- 70 uses of "I", "me", "we", "us" and "our"
- 11 uses of "you" or "your"
First Lady Michelle Obama - 6:30 Minute Speech
- 57 uses of "I", "me", "we", "us" and "our"
- 8 uses of "you" or "your"
I love the use of testimonials and these speeches focused on their life experiences in Chicago. That's fine. But they failed to give the Olympic Committee a viable reason to select Chicago other than they both lived there. Just remember, the customer doesn't care about you or your opinion. They want to know what you can do for them.
Watch the First Lady's Speech
Read the text of both speeches
LESSON #3 The President of Brazil (affectionately nicknamed "Lula") spoke for 6 minutes and employed four powerful emotional hot buttons:
Flattery He praised the Olympic Committee with "You have modernized the games without ever dimming the flame of tradition."
Guilt Lula laid a thick guilt trip on the Committee since the South American continent has never hosted the Games. "It is time to address this imbalance," he urged. "I honestly believe it is Brazil's time. Among the countries that today compete to host the Games, we are the only one that has never had this honor." Followed by "For others it will be just one more Games," he noted. "For us, it will be an unparallel opportunity.
Patriotism He said the bid was not only Brazil's, but also South America's "bid of a continent with almost 400 million men and women and around 180 million youngsters."
Exclusivity He reminded the Olympic Committee that they had a chance to make history. "The opportunity now is to expand the games to new continents. Light the cauldron in a tropical country, in the most beautiful of cities. Send a powerful message to the world that the Olympic Games belong to all people, all continents, and to all humanity!"
Guilt and Exclusivity...now that is a wham-bam pair of emotional hot buttons and viable reasons! Lula finished off his short speech with an even shorter, inspiring video. Follow this link to watch Lula's presentation. He speaks in Spanish and no translation is available at this time, but you really don't need it. Just forward to the 6:30 mark to watch Brazil's uplifting video. It's just 4 minutes long, so watch it to the end for a cool surprise. It is worth it.
Nuggets To Remember
-Weak messages fall flat no matter how skilled your sales person is
-Talk about your customer and benefits, not about you
-Use emotional hot buttons to improve response
Disclaimer I realize that a lot more goes into winning the Olympic bid than a single speech by a President. Lucrative TV contracts have to be negotiated, there must be a willingness to invest in new facilities and of course international politics come into play. This Hot Marketing Tip simply points out how marketing mistakes can happen to anyone, even at the highest levels.
