Synergy R.I.P.

In 1999, "synergy" was one of those words you'd type into LexisNexis and get 1,000 stories back. Some folks, like me, thought synergy represented the collective brainpower of a group working together toward the same goal. On the other, more lopsided hand, big-gigantic-colossal media companies felt it meant crossing boundaries and mediums. Blatant push of product! A movie company strikes a toy deal with McDonald's so every kid at every table is playing with a film character; soon that movie works its way into every corner of our lives until we are forced to see it. In 2002, synergy was asked to leave the table. Corporate America has been forced to stop waxing on about its ability to "convert" customers into paying for one thing just because they like something else. Some companies merged because of the fantastic notion that we were this bunch of fools waiting to buy things because we're already there. Or maybe we bought them because they were in front of our faces. Now everyone laugh. I learned a lot of lessons from 1990s salesmanship while researching how people behave in corporate offices for my book TrendSpotting. My prevailing belief is that invest ors, buyers and pundits are all about to lose faith (ahem, are already losing faith) in the cluttered madhouse of committees that constitute companies like AOL Time Warner and Bertelsmann Worldwide. I peeked into corners and other offices at the turn of the century, and there everyone was, dreaming that—ah!—anything was possible. Corporations openly swore that they could force-feed consumers a bottom-line synergistic mentality with tentacles that greedily reached out to get the money everyone was so darned anxious to spend. Of the many firms whose stocks are currently flailing in the wind, media companies are the ones that acted as though "synergy" was just easy marketing! They really believed that everyday people—you know, fickle consumers—would view something on a monitor, on a television set or in a magazine and just have to have it. They'd see the toy action figure and need to see the movie. Once upon a time, the heads of big companies kept their jobs by not playing their customers for fools. But during the last years of the unstoppable bubble, you could pick up the Boise Gazette and read about an AOL Time Warner exe cutive's plan to "get" the public everywhere possible. The not-so-gullible people read this and just said, "Nah." Salesmanship never had a chance. The first lesson of closing a sale is that in order to sell twice, you have to sell successfully once. Before 1999 we called that Sales 101.The second lesson, now making a comeback, is basic: Listen to consumers, develop what they want and bring it back to them. What was in the water that made com panies believe that one product could sell another just because the two coexist? Sales 103 may be the hardest lesson to learn. Pitch customers a clear, unadulterated message. For heaven's sake, don't shove things down people's throats.

Brand Marketing

Synergy R.I.P.

Richard Laermer Is The Author Of Trendspotting: Think Forward, Get Ahead

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Richard Laermer Is The Author Of Trendspotting: Think Forward, Get Ahead