Is It Relevant?

There was a word. The word was so powerful it changed consumer behavior.

Nobody even questioned the process that contained this word.

What was that word?

Repeat.

If you read Benjamin Cheever’s book, The Plagiarist, a marketing executive becomes an overnight success by simply adding the word repeat to shampoo instructions: Shampoo, rinse, repeat. As the story goes, shampoo sales skyrocketed.

While this example is a work of fiction, many shampoo bottles had this word in their instructions.

Why would you need the word repeat in the shampoo instructions? If you were to look at consumer behavior in the 1950’s, many people didn’t shampoo their hair as often as we do today.

Over the years consumers changed their habits shampooing more frequently making the process of “repeat” obsolete. While there was a change in consumer behavior there was also an opportunity.

With frequency in shampooing, hair became dry and unmanageable. Therefore, conditioner was added to the process. It not only created another step in the process, it added another revenue stream to the shampoo industry.

So, what’s the point?

What we learned, what we know, and what we’ve seen, may no longer be relevant in today’s marketplace.

Yet, there are times where we try to apply what we learned, what we know, and what we’ve seen and wonder why it no longer works.

It may be just the right moment to create a different word, process, mindset, or viewpoint.

As we wind down this year, take a few minutes to celebrate what is working and review what isn’t working in your business or life. Identify what you want to create going forward. Explore ways you could approach your business or life differently not from what you did in the past, but what you want to create going forward.