Michael F. Schein on the Do’s and Don’ts of Marketing

According to one study, 78% of small businesses fail because they lack a well-developed business & marketing plan.

However, if you feel like the world of marketing is a minefield, you’re not alone. In The CEO.News latest podcast, Sasha Garcia sat down to speak to Michael F. Schein , author of "The Hype Handbook" and founder of MicroFame Media. Known for working with huge clients such as eBay and LinkedIn, Schein’s extensive knowledge of behavioral psychology has led him to becoming one of the leading experts in his field. In his words, “what determines whether or not a company becomes a unicorn… is whether or not they're able to drive a lot of attention and excitement to it”.

So how do you do this? Let’s look at his Do’s and Don'ts:

DO… Think, but don’t always act, like a punk-rocker

Schein is known for speaking about adopting a ‘punk rock mindset’ in business. But what does this mean? “I admired the movement that the punk rock era had more than any other movement” he states.

We’re in a time where personal development is everywhere, but a lot can be taken from unconventional rebellion outside of this: “I see personal development coaches and with all due respect they’re all so ‘perky, perky, happy, happy’, work hard, get up at 5 in the morning… Punk rock made beauty out of trash. They would make not playing well an attribute”.

In other words, it’s not about being perfect, it’s about embracing imperfection. Punk rock can teach you to view your weakness as your greatest strength. However, before you go throwing your laptop out of the office window, select the parts of punk-rock that can improve your marketing: “I don't think you can be a punk rock business but I do think you can learn to view confrontation as a plus… I think you can learn to turn your weaknesses into strengths.”

DON’T…Be a con artist

One of the reasons Schein has reached the level of success that he has is because his work holds integrity. He is extremely transparent about his ‘why’ and will only work with businesses who he believes want to make a positive impact in the world.

He recently started to work with African healthcare company Kasha, which he insists should be on everyone’s radar: “They are completely changing the paradigm of global health… a lot of lives will be saved and a lot of good will be done”.?

The first reason he determined that they would be a good company to work with is because they are doing good in the world, and the second was that they had already reached some level of success with funding. As Schein says “they had a wonderful balance of risk taking and prudence”. If you are clear on your stance and you have integrity, you will attract the right clients.

DO… Use Creative Experiments

At the moment, businesses are quick to jump onto social media platforms before questioning if this is the best tool to use for marketing, as Schein says “Companies often get this backwards…they say…we need a TikTok strategy… or we need a LinkedIn ads strategy”. Schein instead creates strategies based on “mass psychology principles”. Only after this will you know whether TikTok is the right outlet.?

He encourages conducting creative experiments based on hype strategies until you find the right combination that reaps results, and then scale it up:

“There are a lot of branding agencies who are so creative but they strategize and strategize and build decks and this and that but hen people actually go to put them out in the universe they throw the deck in the trash because it doesn't apply to real life”.?

One positive example he gives is that of a riot group in Russia who stood in the Red Square in Moscow to protest against Putin. They had to wear masks to hide their identities but instead of wearing black masks they wore brightly coloured masks, and the women wore bikinis. Because of this, they attracted mass attention from passersby and soon went viral.

This strategy was well thought out - if they had carried out the same demonstration in a quieter part of Russia they would still have faced a jail sentence but they wouldn’t have received global recognition. This is what Schein means when he speaks about being smart when taking risks.

DON’T… Be A Copycat

Taking inspiration is one thing, copying marketing strategies steep by step is another. As Schein says, if you’re copying “you’ve lost the first mover advantage.” Rather than copying in this way, Schein prefers to draw inspiration from everywhere, whether this be riots or people like Alice Cooper’s manager.

He then applies these underlying creative strategies, along with his knowledge in psychology and puts it in the framework of modern technology.

DO… Ask Yourself These Questions

Schein recommends asking yourself the following questions if you’re looking for a way to stand out from your competition in the marketplace and truly understand what your business stands for:

1. What is a point of view held by competitors or by people in your industry that is considered gospel that everyone takes for granted but that you absolutely hate or that you think is so misguided?
2. What is a point of view that you have that other people don't agree with, that you are one hundred percent sure is true??

Conclusion

Although there are a lot of trends when it comes to marketing, Schein insists that the best thing you can do is to develop a clear idea of both your moral standpoint and what you want to deliver and work from there.

Rather than jumping onto social media, look to human psychology and question what works best for your unique business.

Don’t be afraid to conduct creative experiments and stand out from the crowd… and most importantly,? keep your eyes peeled: inspiration is everywhere!