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Fight Club remains one of my favorite movies even after I read the book it was based on. The acting didn’t reduce author Chuck Palahniuk’s powerful messages. On the contrary, it helped me connect them to different social realities, including the universe of marketing.
The film’s transformative character inspires transformative actions from a business perspective. Here are a few marketing interpretations of five memorable Fight Club quotes:
"What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear."
—Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt)
This quote illustrates people’s annoyance with outbound marketing. It speaks to the irritable nature of TV advertising and unwanted brand messages. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, seeks to shift the decision-making power into the hands of customers. So, are you investing in interruptive types of marketing or offering something needed and valued?
For a closer look at how consumer behavior is transforming and responding to intrusive, outbound marketing, you might want to flip through this presentation:
"You’re not the contents of your wallet."
—Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt)
Effective marketing can be achieved without big spending. Be smart and strategic about your assets—invest in human resources, unique experiments and results-driven marketing. Customer evangelism, for instance, doesn’t cost much in comparison to other marketing channels but leads to high retention rates. When the contents of your wallet can only go so far, the collective brain of your company extends a lot further.
"The people I meet on each flight? They’re single-serving friends."
—The Narrator (Edward Norton)
Single-serving friends are the ones you meet once and will never see again—a situation marketers should avoid by all means. Social media has proven that readers, followers and fans are not "single-serving." They don’t serve merely as customers but have multiple identities as parents, dog-lovers, science fiction readers or wine enthusiasts. The goal for marketers, then, is to develop long-term relationships with well-rounded individuals.
"Pretend you’re me. Make a managerial decision. You find this, what would you do?"
—Richard Chesler (Zach Grenier)
With new communication tools, it is increasingly possible for different team members to take initiative and launch new projects. By distributing power more evenly within your organization, you can give rise to a fairer and more innovative company culture. Encouraging employees to think for themselves and to make “managerial” decisions can lead to fascinating results.
"I say never be complete. I say stop being perfect. I say let-let's evolve, let the chips fall where they may."
—Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt)
People tend to forget that evolution is not equal to perfection. Don’t obsess over the idea of completion; rather, remain open-minded and welcome change. Learn to let go of projects and let things evolve. The essence of entrepreneurship lies in the ability to take risks and make new mistakes, not in avoiding these lessons in search for perfection.
Although the Fight Club quotes above might seem out of context, they introduce valuable lessons that can easily be applied to a company’s marketing strategy. Above all, they offer ideas to encourage businesses to think big and act small.
Photo credit: filmhirek
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