Good Marketing Caters to This Hunger for Fantasy While Staying True to Reality.... The Perry Marshall Mastermind Club!

Next time you find yourself at Wal-Mart, take a look at the book aisle.

What do you see?

Mostly fiction. Murder and mayhem. Tawdry romantic escapades. Terrifying horror stories. International espionage. Steamy, illicit affairs. Gangsters, drug lords, oil and diamond cartels.

These novels are pure escape—a glimpse of a world where good is boring and bad is exciting.

You'd never actually want to be aboard the submarine during the Hunt for Red October. No tawdry affair is ever as fun and adventurous as it appears to be in a Danielle Steele book.

Why does the desire for fantasy run so deep?

Because the story of most people's lives reads more like this:

Larry Lunchbox drives to work, gets stuck on the 405 expressway, misses the first 15 minutes of his staff meeting.

Goes to Taco Bell / KFC for lunch but doesn't buy any KFC because he's only got $1.83 in his pocket. He buys a Burrito Supreme for $1.59 plus tax instead.

Larry submits a purchase requisition for $18,400 of metal stampings.

Gets a call from his wife at 2:38 to remind him to pick up her coat at the cleaners on the way home from work.

Eats a bowl of chili and Wonder bread for supper and watches NBC for most of the evening. Attempts to get frisky with his wife but fails because she was washing dishes while he was watching TV...

"Real life" for most people is stupefyingly, mind-numbingly, fall-asleep-at-the-wheel boring.

And THAT'S why Tom Clancy and Stephen King novels fly off the shelves.

Good marketing caters to this hunger for fantasy (while staying true to reality).

In your marketing, you weave a story where Larry discovers an amazing shortcut. He is a hero at work, he comes home happy and takes his wife out for Italian food. And they make sweet love after the lights go out.

Finally, for once in his life, Larry Lunchbox is a hero!

Maybe you're thinking, "But Perry, there's nothing fantastic about sensor modules!"

Well, 25 years ago, coffee was a 65 cent item that came in a styrofoam cup.

Then some people dared to ask, "Hey, if someone were to have a fantasy about coffee, what would that be like?"

Great question. Brilliant, actually.

Now we have seductive art-deco boutiques. Five kinds of espresso. Pumpkin spice lattes every fall. Americano, Cappucino and Mocha. Barristas instead of clerks or waiters.

Starbucks turned a simple cup of coffee into a $4 taste of luxury, and now millions of Larry Lunchboxes take a 15 minute detour every morning to treat themselves.

So here's a question for YOU:

If your customer had a FANTASY about YOUR product, service or business, what would it be?

Fantasy is a relative term here.

If you sell industrial valves, it might be a guarantee of delivered performance or satisfaction, from someone who actually keeps his promises.

Dig deep on this. Maybe grab a notebook and a cup of $4 coffee and work out all the steamy, pulse-pounding details.

Got it?

Good. Now TELL your customers.

People will read your ads because they pander to that fantasy, and they'll buy your product, too.

Because if you really can fulfill a fantasy at a reasonable price, who can refuse that?

We deep dives into topics like this every month in my Renaissance Newsletter. It's delivered only to Mastermind Club members.

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Carpe Diem,

Perry Marshall