Loading The other day, my husband and I had just finished up our run and were driving home when we were stopped dead in our tracks. Crossing the 4 lane busy road that we were about to turn onto was a mother duck and her 10 or 11 ducklings. They were adorable as they waddled across, some tripping at times only to scramble back up. The problem was, they took up an entire car lane during what would be considered rush hour for the area. The world appeared to go into slow motion as Matt and I looked at each other with horror at the inevitable event playing out before our very eyes.
Several cars were coming right toward the little family, unbeknownst to the drivers or the ducks as the ducks had somehow picked the most dangerous part of the road to cross. The top of a hill. The first car topped the hill and Matt looked away quickly. However, I couldn’t turn away. As the driver hit the little family she teared up in disbelief. There was nothing she could have done to stop the disaster. Several more cars followed her, but were fortunate enough to be able to go around the remaining ducks.
As the last cars pulled away, I saw the mother trying to get the remaining ducklings up the curb on the other side, but they were too small. Matt and I drove quickly to the other side where another car had stopped to help. I was able to help keep the mother from pecking us all while 2 other women gently picked up the remaining ducklings and delivered them to the safety of the grassy bank.
Now, I realize that this is a horrible story and that you are probably wandering what it has to do with business or marketing. Well, there are a few different lessons to take from this.
The first lesson is something that the news has perfected. Delivery of bad news. While most of society would say that they do not enjoy hearing about bad events, over 90% of them still sit on their couch every evening to have their brains implanted with the latest homicide, rape, fire, robbery, car accident, insert any disaster here. Stories based upon positive events are very few and far between. Why is this? Are the news stations morbid? Or do they know something about the human psyche that we do not?
They do this because bad news sells. Fear sells. Positive events on the other hand, while we might say, “Oh, isn’t that nice,” do not cause us to be on the edge of our seats and trying to figure out “Who done it?”
So how can this be used in your business? Well, maybe it is tying your marketing into a recent event, like swine flu. How can you do this in a tasteful manner? Very carefully. Or maybe it is merely mentioning the recession in your copy. This has been a great one for those in the financial industry.
What is the other lesson that can be taken from this? I would say that, whether you are the leader or whether you are the follower, always be looking for signs of danger. The mother duck had no idea that she was leading her children into danger, but she wasn’t looking either. She was busy looking back and making sure each one of them was with her. The ducklings weren’t looking for danger, because they didn’t know to. They were trusting their mother to lead them straight.
In business, whether you are the CEO or the low man on the totem pole, you should always be looking for things/events that may put you or your business in danger. Many CEOs did not see the recession coming, and as a result companies are going out of business or being forced to downsize. These workers, thinking that they were set, did not think to save money or invest outside of the company.
So whether you are a duck or a business person, the same lesson should apply…look both ways before crossing the street and then run like hell.
