The Evil Mouse’s secret to creating generations of irrationally fanatical customers
Published: Mon, 11/23/20
Were they necessary?
Dorky?
Waste of time?
His answer:
I am paraphrasing, but he basically said yes, keep those in, those are the little things 90% of people will miss, but the 10% who do get them will treasure the stories more, become much bigger fans of the stories, and enjoy the stories in ways they never would otherwise.
Turns out, he was spot on correct.
And, ever since then, I’ve doubled down on including such “Easter Eggs” in all my emails, content, videos, podcasts, and even customer service. All of which, I believe, has created a much stronger, more fanatical, and more prosperous/successful fanbase of customers and subscribers who “get” these things, and profit and/or benefit from the content far more as a result.
And if you think this is some fluke, think again.
Fast forward 6 years later to Summer of 2019.
I read in “Email Players” subscriber Vance Morris’ excellent book "Systematic Magic" about how Disney has been doing this for decades to build its irrationally fanatical fanbase.
Like the “Be Our Guest” restaurant, for example.
Vance says they use expensive & painstakingly created little carvings of the Beast’s head instead of customary (and much cheaper) little circles on the ceiling.
A very small percentage of people will ever notice much less get it.
We’re talking probably less than 10% of customers.
Yet, those are almost certainly the most fanatical, most likely to return many more times in their lives, bring entire generations (kids, grandkids, great grandkids), watch all the movies, aggressively defend the Evil Mouse’s most insane decisions, buy all the branded merchandise they see, and work tirelessly to give the company as much of their money as they possibly can, and train their families & friends to do the same.
The Evil Mouse does this sort of thing in probably hundreds of other ways, too.
Like using real plants vs fake plants maybe 2% of people would notice.
Or applying a fresh coat of gold paint daily on their castle.
Or having an origin story in every nook & cranny of everything you see.
And the list goes on.
Little, tiny, seemingly insignificant things, often done at enough expense to make the accountants & bean counters grimace since they can’t be tracked or measured… that add up to a far bigger, more powerful, and fanatically followed brand.
No, you cannot always “measure” or “track” or “test” these things.
(Thus, the squirming accountants.)
But show me a business that does this, and thinks about it and, even most importantly, has a methodology for this, and I’ll show you a business that has a brand people love to follow and will cheerfully buy from for years and decades into the future.
All right, enough of this.
I'll be yapping more about this in the very near future.
In the meantime:
If you like this sort of thing and thinking a bit deeper about your marketing than your Facebook friends, then the December "Email Players" issue will be showing you some related ideas to all this for making doing business with you more pleasurable than the horizontal polka.
To subscribe in time to get the next issue, go here:
https://www.EmailPlayers.com
Ben Settle
P.S. A heads up:
In Email Players' nearly 10-year publication, I have never raised the price. It's always been the same price mostly because I've never been all that gung-ho to raise them. But with the rising number of idiots who have been pricing their continuity at exactly "$97/month like Ben does ROTFLMAO!!!" solely because they see me do it... and because the info is worth far more than that anyway... and because I should be waterboarded for waiting this long to do it as it is (i.e., it's borderline advertising malpractice not raising prices in that stretch of time)... I will be raising the price soon. Of course, those subscribed before I pull the trigger will be "grandfathered" in at the current price.
I don't yet know exactly when I'll do it.
I just know it'll be soon.
But once I do raise the price, all new subscribers joining after that - not current subscribers - will be paying more for it.
Do with this info whatever ye will.