Marketing Like the Colonel
I wondered about his mindset and his smug smile. He lived in an area of our country where everyone’s mama and grandmaw fried their legendary “best in the country” chicken every Sunday, and the kitchen was female domain. His was an era (Depression) when folks ate at home. They were all always at home. They didn’t work “from” home three days a week. They worked “at” home 24/7. They didn’t pick up cardboard buckets on the way home from soccer practice.
So how does a man in that time and place decide he could make a living selling fried chicken? How did he convince customers to buy his product?
Authors know what a log line is. Marketers know the “pitch,” the “elevator speech,” the hook. The colonel had his in the form of a “secret ingredient.” Among the hundreds of blue ribbon fried chicken cooks, no had had his secret ingredient. One had to taste it to figure it out. Is it sawdust or is it a rubber boot? It was clearly a challenge, and Harlen had thrown down the fork.
Among the thousands of new books published annually what is your secret ingredient that will challenge other readers and writers to sample your wares?
On Thursday I’ll share other secret ingredients of Colonel Sanders’ business plan.