A good friend of mine sent me an email about perspective – which told the story of Joshua Bell (someone I had never heard of) playing his violin at a Washington DC Metro station as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and people’s
priorities.
and now you have my attention.
The question at hand was “In a common place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an
unexpected context?”
While the answer seemed to surprise some people – it did not surprise me the answer
was “nearly 42”. Yes Nearly $42 dollars collected by one of the greatest musicians
of our time. who had sold out a theater in Boston where the cheap seats were $100 each.
The Article – “which won a Pulitzer prize” is available at this address, and I
would recommend that you read it, but important details are summarized below.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html
The a quick summary of the event is as follows:
—————————————————————————————————-
After 3 minutes: A middle aged man noticed the musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried on
4 minutes: The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw the money in the hat without stopping and continued to walk.
6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and walked away.
10 minutes: A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The child stopped to look back at the violinist again, but the mother pulled hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head back all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.
45 minutes: The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money, but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.
1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded.
Findings; No one knew this, but:
· The violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world,
· He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written,
· With a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.
· Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theatre in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each.
—————————————————————————————————-
But there is a much more important question – how does this impact you in your day to day life, and in the messaging and branding of you personally and for business?
If one of the greatest and most talented musicians in the world, playing one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with the best tools available, in a crowded subway can not get noticed – what does that say you telling your story?
The most important part of the article was – UNLESS YOU CAN FIND AN AUDIENCE THAT WILL APPRECIATE YOUR TRUE VALUE – YOU ARE POTENTIALLY WASTING YOUR EFFORTS!
So lets consider a few things about the experiment:
* every effort was made to not draw attention to external indicators
– There were no guards around a $3.5 million dollar instrument
– There were no ropes to protect the performer (implying he should be there in the first place)
– There were no camera’s taking pictures of the event
– There were no vendors offering to sell pictures
– There were no posters promoting the celebrity
– There were no vendors offering tickets to the symphony
* Here was just another street performer – lost in the noise of other street performers in a metro stop in DC, an all too common occurrence. And he was probably not far from a number of pan handlers asking for spare change.
The placement of the performance caused it to lose value.
The timing of the performance caused it to lose value.
The surroundings of the performance caused it to lose value.
The performance itself was remarkable, but it was lost on the participants who would never give it the time or credit that it deserves, because the performer was not credible by the available clues.
To be honest – if the performance was augmented by different factors – it may have had a very different result. I suspect that a half dozen photographers, and a small seeded crowd around a marked off area with 4 police guards may have caused people to take more notice. But that is because each of those things adds – external validation to the importance of the event. The photographers imply external interest, the police imply need to be guarded, and the marked off area implies consent by the metro authorities. Each one making the entire scenario more noteworthy.
When you are interacting with customers, do you appear to be a street performer, or a recognized talent that needs to be guarded and aided?
If a street performer were able to hire the police guards, photographers, and get permission, would they get more “respect” for their art? What are the external sources of credibility that validate your “appeal” to your potential customers?
What is it about your delivery that makes people want to pay $100 per ticket when passers by on the street will not pay you a dollar? – Finding the answer depends on you, but – to look for it requires understanding of how your target audience perceives value.
I have been finding this with the distribution of my book. I have given free copies of the PDF of Developing A Cash Cow Marketing Plan to friends for years, but it is not until they had made an investment in it that they found the time to read it and get value from it. Are the materials more valuable because you paid for them? Are they more valuable because someone other than me told you that you should read it? Would you believe it more if I has sold out a conference as a keynote speaker? It is amazing as to how we perceive value. If you wish to get into the mind of your customer then learn about who he or she is, and what matters to them by following the steps in my book – at http://www.cashcowmarketingplan.com
Podjacker's Blog 