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(Home)
Dick Larkin's Weekly Newsletter
Michelangelo and the Yellow Pages
December 6, 2002
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in this issue
-- Power Question #1 - "What would you like it to be?"
-- Today's History Lesson
-- Give Me Your Tired...
-- The Question That Changed History
-- Go Ahead, Pull My Finger
-- Brain Teaser
-- Sign up your friends
Greetings!
Each week I send a newsletter with information on
improving your business. While specifically targeted
toward the Yellow Pages industry, I hope you find it
interesting (or at least entertaining).
This week, we'll look at "Power Question #1" which can
help your advertiser target his business and make it
more profitable.
This question will help you determine your advertiser's
real "need".
The primary value that Yellow Pages bring to
advertisers is customers. Power Question #1 - "What would you like it to be?"
Our main job is to
make phones ring
with interested buyers.
Used
wisely, Yellow
Pages give advertisers the ability to target a particular
type of customer and promote a specific type of
product or service.
Check it out...
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"Power Question #1" opens doors that are not visible
to the naked eye.
"Power Question #1" is simply, "What would you LIKE it
to be?"
When fact finding, follow up an advertiser's statement
about their business with, "That's interesting, what
would you like it to be?"
Today's History Lesson
This question can help clarify the area of focus when
designing a business's Yellow Pages advertisement.
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"Power Question #1" has so much impact that it
actually changed history. Here's how it happened.
In 1508, in Venice, Italy there were
two very talented artists with booths set up on
the square.
The artists were Michelangelo
and his
brother, Gioseffi.
The boys billed themselves as "Mickey and Goofy -
caricaturists of Venice".
Other than the
occasional
public flogging, the artists were
Venice's main attraction. Every day a line of tourists
wearing funny hats waited in line to have their
caricatures drawn.
It was a great business, and Mickey and Goofy made a
very nice living from it. They charged 4 liras for each
drawing (this was several years before Europe's first
attempt at a unified currency - the deutschmark).
Then one day Adam, an Account Executive from the
Renaissance Pages visited with the pair about
advertising in a
remarkable new medium called the Yellow Pages.
Give Me Your Tired...
The Renaissance Pages promoted their directory with
the clever slogan,
"Come Outta the Dark
Ages".
[Editor's side note,
the Yellow Pages Publishers
Association
(recently renamed YP-IMA-M-O-U-S-
E)
later modified this slogan with their brilliant Walking
Light Bulb - - "Get an Idea" campaign.]
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Goofy was decidedly not interested and told Adam to
hit the Appian Way.
"Why
should-a
anyone advertise-a when he already has-a too much-a
business-a to handle?"
Mickey was in agreement with Goofy.
The Question That Changed History
"Whatsa matta
with you?" he told Adam. "Canta you see that-a
people wait hours just-a to have me draw them with a
bigga head and-a funny eyebrows?"
"I draw a hundred-a cartoons every day. I can't-a do
a
single one more."
Michelangelo exasperatedly
explained.
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Adam then asked Mickey the question that changed
history.
"It's interesting that you're so busy
drawing caricatures of tourists . . .
"But what would you LIKE to be doing? Isn't there
some
other type
of work that you'd prefer?"
Mickey was shocked.
No one had ever asked
about his
dreams and aspirations before. Everyone else just saw
him as a cartoonist.
Mickey confided in Adam,
"You know-a that
little-a
church
over in Rome, the Sistine Chapel?
Well,
what I'd-a
really
like-a to do is to scrape-a off the popcorn ceiling and
paint
a nice-a little fresco up there."
Adam dug for details, "That's very interesting
Michelangelo, please tell me more."
Mickey went on, Go Ahead, Pull My Finger
"I'd like-a to paint a tribute
to Homer
Simpson or maybe something religious."
Adam said, "If you're serious about doing that type of
work, why don't we place an ad for you under "Popcorn
Ceiling Removal", "Homer Simpson Murals" and "Religious
Frescos".
That way, you'll be noticed by
people looking
for that type of service. Mickey agreed to place three
informative and attractive ads in the directory.
Shortly after the directory was published, Pope Julius of
Orange was looking for a vinyl siding contractor when
he became captivated by Mickey's beautiful ad.
Mickey landed the contract to remove the popcorn and
paint the ceiling.
Concerned that
parishioners might
mistake a mural of Homer for his balding holiness, Pope
Julius requested that Mickey paint the ceiling
with "something religious, but not too over the top."
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Michelangelo was so grateful to Adam for helping him
expand his business that he honored his favorite
Account Executive by painting
a tribute to all sales reps on the ceiling in the section
he lovingly
called, "Go Ahead, Pull My Finger."
The moral of the story is, "No matter how busy
someone is, there is probably something that they'd
rather be doing".
As Zig Ziglar says, "You can get anything in life that
YOU want if you help enough other folks get what THEY
want."
Power Question #1 is a powerful assistant when trying
to find where a business owner would like to be headed.
Always ask your advertiser, "What would you LIKE to
be doing?"
Read Past Issues of Newsletters
Brain Teaser
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I was pretty amazed at how many people had difficulty
with the brain teaser in the last newsletter. To refresh
your memory, here it is again.
The arctic winters have been known to turn
bitterly cold for long stretches. In some rare cases, the
extended cold will freeze the ice pack so thick that the
Eskimos cannot hunt or fish.
When this happens, the Eskimos face life-threatening
situations. Scientists have been baffled by the
discovery that Eskimos will die of starvation instead of
eating penguin eggs to stay alive.
Can you provide any clues to solve this mystery?
I received many guesses that penguins do not lay
eggs. In fact they do lay eggs, and the male Emperor
Penguin will hold the egg on his feet to keep it warm
while the female runs out to Wal-Mart.
The REAL reason that the Arctic Eskimoes do not eat
penguin eggs is that penguins do not live in Santa's
territory near the arctic North Pole. They live in the
Antarctic (South Pole), which would be just plain silly
for Eskimoes to travel that far for some lousy penguin
eggs.
Don't feel too bad if you didn't get it correct. Several
of my daughter's second grade classmates missed it as
well :-)
Our winner is:
Ross Renner in San Diego. He may select any item out
of the company store for being chosen from the correct
entries.
This week's brain teaser is a little
different. Sign up your friends
A man is wearing black. Black
shoes, socks, trousers, jumper, gloves and balaclava
(hood covering his head and face).
He is walking down a black street with all the street
lamps off.
A black car is coming towards him
with its lights off but somehow manages to stop in
time.
How did the driver see the man?
Send your answer by Wednesday to
puzzler@dicklarkin.com
We'll pick one of the winning answers to
receive a collector's edition assortment of goodies from
the Internet Department's treasure box.
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If you know someone who would be interested, they
can receive their very own copy by signing up at the
link below.
You may put thier email in for them. Try it, it's fun!
Contact Information
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email: newsletters@dicklarkin.com
voice: 858-614-5425
web: http://www.dicklarkin.com
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