The Secret of MAYA

Back in the Mad Men era, my room mate in New York, Jeff, worked for the Loewy Industrial design firm.

I was at J. Walter Thompson, then the largest ad agency in the world.

We were learning how to convince, persuade and influence people through words and design.

Organizations were putting money and time into training youngsters like us. We’d bring home the lessons learned each day, share and debate them and tuck the knowledge we shared into the voluminous folds of our little grey cells.

Jeff told me about MAYA

Each of us talked about the heroes that built and were building the businesses we worked in. I shared how a rogue art director came up with the Walter Mitty approach to advertising the Mustang and the entire team went back to Detroit to pitch what became an iconic TV ad.

Jeff was studying Industrial Design and had landed a job in the most iconic company in the business. Raymond Loewy was the genius at the helm. He was directly responsible for the final Coke bottle, the livery on Air Force One, the Shell Logo and a host of other familiar designs.

The Secret is the “sweet spot.”

The secret of MAYA applies to graphic design, product design, advertising, marketing, sales and any other time you need to introduce something and get it accepted. The letters of MAYA stand for:

Most Acceptable Yet Advanced

The way Jeff explained it was: “Loewy believed that people are torn between being curious about new things but fearful of anything too new.” Loewy said it in much more high-falutin’ language but it boils down to finding the “sweet spot” between those concepts to be successful.

Sometimes it is as simple as positioning the I-Phone as a phone not a multi-tasking whizbang of hand-held computer. In copy it can be as simple as adding the word “even” to a description. Notice your reaction to that phrase added to a statement:

Be credible to be more successful vs Be credible to be even more successful.

Credibility leads to cash or, if you prefer, Credibility leads to even more cash.

The Takeaways

1. Getting people to accept your proposals is easier if you balance the new with the familiar.
2. Think of MAYA as a line from Acceptable to Advanced and choose the spot on it that is okay with most people.
3. A single word in a description can be enough to shift buy in.

I’m Jerry Fletcher, strategic messaging consultant and professional international keynote speaker. I find the words individuals and organizations use to become even more memorable and more profitable. Learn more at my web sites:

• Consulting website: https://JerryFletcher.com
• Speaking website: https://NetworkingNinja.com