Creating value, innovation and other clichés

Clichés can be convicting. They can be irritating. But rarely are they untrue.

Think about how a few of them apply to branding and marketing:

Dance with the one what brung you: Be true to your brand’s values. Change your brand’s clothing, but don’t try to change its soul.

Luck favors the prepared: Do your homework. Know your market. Set yourself up for success.

The worst kind of fear is fear of failure: How often do we hesitate on an opportunity because we aren’t 100-percent sure?

Recently, a Carnegie Mellon professor named Randy Pausch gave his last lecture to a packed hall of students, alumni, family and friends. You’ve probably heard of Randy by now, but in case you haven’t, do yourself the favor of watching the video or picking up his book. His story is inspiring and his insights have become legendary.

Randy is one of the closest things to a rocket scientist—he’s a computer-human interaction researcher and teacher—and he is dealing with pancreatic cancer. So I attach a high measure of credibility to what he has to say about life, business and relationships. One of my favorite pieces of wisdom from Randy’s book and lecture is his observation that clichés become clichés because they are, in his words, “right on the money.” They are repeated, not only because they are catchy, but also because they are true.

Some of our clichés in marketing and branding have become passé because we don’t adhere to the underlying truths that made them clichés in the first place.

We think if we say the word strategy that we’re being strategic. We say we’re innovating when what we’re really doing is inventing. (It doesn’t become innovation until someone pays for it.) And when it comes to creating value, many of us have lost our passion.

Now, this is going to sound really cliché, but I bet if each of us challenges each other to approach our industry the way Randy Pausch has approached his research, his family and his illness, we will exceed anyone’s expectations for innovation, strategic thinking and value creation.