My high school English teacher Mr. Thiessen’s favorite word was “interesting”. He found everything interesting: our papers, stories, speeches, opinions, quips. He made us feel like the most interesting ESL class in the world. For the longest time I suspected he was faking it, as he’d award few As. When it dawned on me, I learned the first lesson of the art of diplomacy. “Interesting” was a way for Mr. Thiessen to acknowledge us, encourage us, and make us feel important, without any obligation whatsoever to do anything. I’ve been using “interesting” to do just that ever since. A great word to say when you have nothing much to say. And, in marketing, a great thing to be when you have little else to offer.
Forget about being interesting. Focus on being valuable.
When you say about an object, “It’s interesting,” you’re saying either, “By standards commonly accepted in society this object is interesting.” or, “I really don’t have an opinion or can’t say anything positive about this object, but I’m sure someone else would. Or not.” Or variations thereof. And that’s it. Interesting generates weak or no connection to you, your motivations, or your actions. It may even be a way to push the object away without hurting any feelings. Interesting just is.
Is interesting of any actual use to you? Does interesting prompt you to do anything? Does it make you want it? Spend your money to acquire it? Interesting is nice, but is it valuable?
“It’s valuable”, on the other hand, carries a positive judgment on the utility of an object to you personally. Valuable doesn’t have to be interesting: few would consider money, tooth brushes, or roads interesting, but we all surely consider them valuable. What “valuable” does is makes a strong link to you, your desires, motivations, and actions. Valuable satisfies a need.
You value valuable. You want valuable. You buy valuable. And so do your customers. Build value into your product/service and its marketing, see your triple bottom line swell.
What makes you or your offering valuable to your customers?
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I read this post and then came back after reflecting on it. This is a really important point and one I’m going to embrace. Thanks Peter!
Here’s the tricky part; ‘valuable’ without ‘interesting’ may not get the attention that it deserves.
I’m no historian, but wasn’t the automobile initially rejected in its nascent state? Just needed some persistent design and refinement before it started to overtake the horse and carriage.
The effort we invest in what makes our services valuable could also help us isolate that which will interest our prospective clients.
Thanks, Peter.
@Mike Russell: True, it’s tricky. I’m sure the automobile got the attention at the time. The reason it was rejected was it didn’t seem valuable to people. Maybe interesting happens as a byproduct of valuable?