“The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men Gang aft agley,” Scottish Proverb 

Archie became my go-to  company when it came to sourcing unique, small-enough, and affordable,  dimensional metaphors from the very start of Nurture Marketing.
We were exploring the use of powerful ways to dimensionalize the metaphorical connections and communications were attempting to explain.

Finding him was like heaven for impact-mail types like me. I have literally tested and measured each enclosure selected for it’s ‘ah-ha’ responses. Out of the hundreds

considered, ranking the best, some proved exceptionally memorable. Check out these and more at www.accoutrements.com .

50 lumpy-mailings with this sure-keeper.
 
 

Naturally blog-time tolerance allows for only the recent superstars but in candor, there have been some unpleasant surprises with ‘lumpies’.

The more I tested metaphors, the more aware I became of how metaphors are everywhere. Some work, some backfire.

An early client, wanting to get the attention of Sales Executives bosses reengineering sluggish sales forces. I almost immediately came up with a headline

“A Sluggish Sales Force Always Produces a Sluggish Bottom Line”. All we needed was a metaphor. Archie came through as usual. He sent me a very realistic looking, black

Slug, about 6”  long and it even had a slightly sticky skin. I felt, BINGO. We double-back taped a slug at the top of each letter. Couldn’t wait for the statistics.
Sent fifty and offered a free sales-force assessment and diagnostic. Then I waited impatiently for replies.
The first day was a triumph and a near disaster.

I took all inbound calls that day and grew more excited by each of the first five calls. All were tickled by the metaphor and requested the free personal assessment.

Lunch was an excite blur. It looked like we had hit a home-run. At least till the first call of the afternoon. A mature and articulate lady quietly introduced herself, her company and the reason for the call. She asked for the name of our law firm and explained the request. Turns out, she is the executive secretary to the president and opens every piece of his mail.  She opened ours first since it ‘stood-out’. As she leaned back in her chair while opening the envelope and was startled by the slug that had somehow become unstuck and fell hitting her in the neck. In her shock of surprise, she hurled herself backward hitting her head on the file cabinet behind and thought she might have whiplash.
Well, turns out there was no injury and the gracious lady forgave me and even opened the door to the boss for me and a client resulted, obviously using a subtler metaphor.

Lessons: Test then celebrate your crazy ideas.
Always use a better sensitivity to the possible reaction(s) to be anticipated by the opener.

Don’t trust your intuition till after a blind test.

The ardent nurture is constantly seeking fresh, innovative experiences for their clients and prospective ones, but remember the edict of the ancients;
 But use a better sensitivity to the possible reaction to be anticipated by the opener. With even the best of intentions, “The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men Gang aft agley,”.

Good Nurturing

Jim