In 1937, after 20 years of research at the suggestion of Andrew Carnegie, Napoleon Hill published the motivational personal development book Think and Grow Rich. Napoleon Hill penned the famous quote, “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.” I read this book about 15 years ago was so impressed that a few years later I bought the audio tapes to listen to on my daily commute.
The book reflects on life lessons imparted to Hill by some of America’s most prominent business people of the time. It’s important to note that Think and Grow Rich is not a book about making money. In fact, money comes at the bottom of Hill’s list of the 12 great riches of life, which he lists in order of importance, as being:
1. Positive mental attitude
2. Sound physical health
3. Harmony in human relationships
4. Freedom from fear
5. The hope of achievement
6. The capacity of faith
7. A willingness to share one’s blessings
8. A labor of love
9. An open mind on all subjects
10. Self discipline
11. The capacity to understand people
12. Financial security
In Think and Grow Rich, Hill talks a lot about the importance of cultivating creative vision and imagination. He professes that there are two type of imagination – Creative Imagination and Synthetic Imagination. Creative Imagination is that unique faculty of the mind by which hunches and inspiration develop into the truly new ideas that are introduced to humanity. Far more common is what Hill refers to as Synthetic Imagination: the arrangement of existing concepts, ideas or plans into new combinations.
So what does all this have to do with coming up with big promo ideas? Everything. The thing to remember about promotions is that they do not build brands – they reinforce brands. This means that whenever you are working on a sales promotion idea, you need to draw upon the core ideas, essence and values of the brand – not come up with new ideas that are not relevant to the brand. You can still come up with a promotional idea that has never been done before. But sales promotions are heavily regulated by law in all countries, which means there is a finite set of promotional mechanics that can be drawn upon when coming up with a promotional idea. And equally, when you are trying to promote sales, you are not trying to re-invent the wheel; you want to choose a promotional mechanic that people are familiar with – not one that will confuse them or add an unnecessary hurdle in the purchase process. People understand sweepstakes, contests, games (yes those are all different things), GWPs, BOGOs, rebates and more. The creative challenge is to work within the confines of these mechanical and legal constraints.
So the next time you are asked to come up with a big, never-been-done-before promotional idea, don’t panic. Take a deep look at the brand you are promoting and let your inspiration come from within. Although Napoleon Hill would tell you the idea you eventually come up with is synthetic, that would actually be a great compliment.
