Surprisafy Them!

Last night I gazed into my psychic crystal ball and discovered a popular trend: creating new names, words, and phrases to describe things that we already have words to describe. It’s as if the old words have lost their meaning and we need to give them a hip-hoperation to imbue them with a new sense of relevancy.

But do we really need to create new words?
Or, do we just need to reacquaint ourselves with things we already know? I’m going with the latter.

But, wait! Before you freak out and say we really do need to give marketing terminology some Shakespearization, let me just say, “Don’t have a Purple Cow man!” No seriously, don’t.

After all, what is a Purple Cow? A way to surprise our customers, stop them in their tracks, and make them notice. We all loved surprises as children, but as adults, we’ve become desensitized—few things make us jump up and shout, “Hip hip horray!”

Before I get too excited and start running through the streets shouting, “Eureka!” and rush off writing a book called Unwrapping The Present, double entendre included, let us step back and look at our old friend: surprise.

You enter an auditorium and take your seat. You listen to a discussion with a popular author about his latest book. You feel it relates to you. You can see how his advice can improve your life. You gain a positive outlook. Suddenly, you’re told to reach under the seat. You pull out a pair of keys and are told they’re to your new car. But you’re not the only one—everyone else in the audience has keys. Everyone’s getting a new car. You’ve just been the recipient of a surprise gift from Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah truly understands surprise: it’s not just about doing something shocking and unexpected; it’s about doing some shocking and unexpected that is intricately related to the business. It’s the same formula that makes great movies with twist endings work—right until the end of The Usual Suspects you don’t suspect that Roger Kint is Keyser Söze, but when he switches his walk and you realize how he fabricated the story, it all makes sense in the context of everything that came before it.

From the focus of the shows to the Oprah Book Club to the Angel Network, the foundation of Oprah’s business is helping people better their lives and giving to others. By making a huge act of giving unexpected, Oprah takes full advantage of the power of surprise.

So before you read the next cleverly-titled New York Times bestselling marketing book that has already toppled over the tipping point, think about what you already know, how it can be applied to your business, and how you can give it new life and make your customers smile.