Embrace the unfamiliar

There's so much we can learn about marketing from everyday life! Here's a basic marketing lesson we can learn from Sukkot, the festival which Jews around the world are currently celebrating:

Embrace the unfamiliar: Jewish law dictates that we build outdoor booths and eat, sleep, and generally spend as much time as possible in them. Anything we would normally do in our houses, we now do in a temporary dwelling. We are commanded to pick up and leave our homes for an entire week. One of the many meanings behind this practice is to force us to look at the world from a new perspective. Nothing can achieve this as well as changing our place of dwelling.

There's a great song by John Mayer called The Great Indoors which describes our fear of the unfamiliar. He sarcastically recommends just sticking with what we're used to: Scared of the world outside you should go explore / Pull all the shades and wander the great indoors.

But it's the simplicity of his conclusion that is so compellingly relevant for us : So go unlock the door / And find what you are here for / Leave the great indoors.

Sometimes we spend so much time "inside", looking at things from our familiar, narrow perspective. We forget that there is a key. A key that opens the door and allows us to solve the simple problems that have been plaguing us for years. Just by stepping outside and looking at things from a different point of view.

Organizations would do well to learn from this simple life lesson. Sometimes we need to leave our old ideas behind, get up, and look at things from an entirely new perspective. Usually it's enough to inspire us to think creatively and innovate. And it's refreshing.

Friendship marketing

I spent most of yesterday at the 2nd international Jewish Bloggers Convention here in Jerusalem. Overall it was pretty good. Informative, entertaining and good networking opportunities. And the onion quiche at the dinner buffet was just fabulous. One of the workshops I went to dealt with blog content - what to write about and what to avoid in order to interest readers.

In his own words, the main point was, "Don't write about what you ate for breakfast."

Generally, I would agree. But with one small caveat:

Lunch is a whole different story. Breakfast can be boring, generic and often non-existent. Lunch is totally where it's at.

So with no further ado, this is what I eat for lunch most days.

A sandwich with hummus (the best), avocado, sprouts, spinach and peppers on a foccacia roll from Teller Bakery (74 Agripas Street, Jerusalem). It has the perfect consistency, the right blend of flavors, and it's pretty darn healthy - aside from the potential salmonella threat of the sprouts. But that's a risk I have to take.

Now. The question you are all asking yourselves: Why should I care what Oren Kaufman eats for lunch?

It all boils down to what I'll call 'friendship marketing'.

When you communicate with donors, you are trying to develop a personal connection with them. Something that tells them, "Hey, I'm real. I'm not a stranger. I know you. We're friends. Friends help each other. We're in a tough spot right now and we need your help. Can you lend a hand?"

In order to do that, you can't sound like a coorporation. You have to sound human. When you write a direct mail letter, use less "we" and more "you". Because that's what people do. They relate to others, they're curious about others. People don't want to be friends with self-centered jerks. And nothing says self-centered jerk like the word "we".

Posting about my lunch habits is a good way for people to get to know a little something about who I am. It makes me real. There is a man behind the blog. A pen behind the ink.

It's a good way to illustrate the necessity of keeping it personal.

Non profit never tasted this good

Last night I ate at a great restaurant in Tel Aviv. Lilit is the name. I had Atlantic Cod with portobello mushrooms in a pumpkin sauce as my starter, and the grilled entrecote steak for the main course. Both were phenomenal. In fact, Lilit has a reputation as one of the better

restaurants in Israel, and certainly as one of the best kosher restaurants out there.

I know what you're thinking. This sounds like the start of a very unsophisticated restaurant review. One which concludes like this: good food, I'd eat there again. Which is true, I would. But this is a blog about marketing, not succulent cuts of meat.

And Lilit, after all, is much more than just a restaurant. Non profits take note: Lilit is an example of social entrepreneurship at it's best. Here's their story:

Partnering with 'Elem', the Israeli organization for Youth In Distress in Israel, Lilit offers vocational training to at-risk youth in a therapeutic, supportive environment.

The teens undergo training, with the objective of later integrating them into the restaurant industry. They receive both theoretical and hands-on instruction in cooking, baking, waiting tables and bartendering. Fifty-four teens have succesfully completed this program.

On its own, Elem is a wonderful organization. They do good work, and help children that others ignore or assume will never amount to anything. But the merger with Lilit takes them to another level. It's ingenious in many ways.

1) Great publicity for Lilit. It doesn't hurt that the food is amazing. But this partnership makes Lilit unique. They were the first restaurant in all of Israel to do this. Many people now have heard of them simply beacuse of the good work they do. And a good number of socially conscious people will go out of their way to eat there to support their work.

2) Great publicity for Elem. On the flip side of things, the excellent food has an attraction in and of itself. People come for the food, but then hear about Elem. When I sat down at the table, there was an elegant card next to the place setting explaining the Lilit/Elem partnership. BAM! That's one more potential donor to Elem.

Ok, so it's a good publicity stunt, yes. But it's more than just that.

3) "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime." Lilit is the perfect expression of the ultimate level of charitable work. Helping people help themselves as opposed to furthering people's dependencies (though often times necessary).

4) It's a unique example of a successful merger between the non profit world and the business sector. And neither side has to compromise on their principles. Lilit runs a successful business (judging from the full house last night) with professional employees and Elem gets to train youth in a serious, hard-working environment.

Normally the words "non profit" and "business sector" do nothing but stir up a little bit of cognitive dissonance in our minds.

But why should they? Why should we seperate these two worlds from each other? They're just two sides of life that we usually don't see operating in tandem. Bringing them together can unify a needlessly conflicting universe.

Lilit and Elem show us the mutually beneficial results that are possible from a merger between these two worlds. And beyond the particulars of this type of merger, they have taught us the power of teamwork, the wonders of creativity, and the limitless potential of human nature.

All it took was a little imagination and some pumpkin sauce.

Cheaper is better than cheap

I have the good fortune of living close to an incredible open air market. Yes, it's noisy, crowded and dirty, but cheap fruits and vegetables are in abundance.

I passed through today around closing time, when many vendors are trying to get rid of extra merchandise. At the bakery I really like, the guy was offering rolls for half price. I probably would have bought one anyways, but he made my decision a lot easier. The answer was 'yes'.

This old-fashioned marketplace has a lot of valuable marketing lessons to teach us. This time-tested selling principle never fails to impress me:

People are more willing to buy something that's cheaper than something that's cheap.

Let's say I know that Product X normally costs $5 but now it's on sale for $2.50. Compare this to the same product in a different store which is regularly sold for $2. The first product is more attractive even though it's more expensive. Why? Because humans like to compare things. And they appreciate novelty.

A $2 product costs $2 more than I would ideally like to spend. A $5 product that's now $2.50 is $2.50 that I now don't have to pay. That's the comparative element. It's the draw behind the "Comparison shopping" phenomenom which is so popular.

And the break from routine is the novelty. $2 all the time is boring. Yeah it's cheaper, but since it's always the same there is nothing attracting my attention. The $5 halved is out of the ordinary. It grabs us.

More marketing lessons learned from "the shuk" coming soon.