A Long Disquisition on Long-Leads.

About one-thousand years ago, I worked on the Mercedes-Benz business. They were introducing a new sports car--the SLK--and they had a problem on their hands.

A year earlier, BMW had introduced a similar car, the Z3 and about half-a-year after that, Porsche had introduced their two-seater, the Boxster.

I learned a couple of conflicting things about $50,000 coupes in 1996. 

1. No one needs a $50,000 coupe. So buyers' can wait. They're typically not someone's 'daily driver.'

2. Rich people and their toys aren't that different from five-year-olds and their cupcakes. They don't like waiting months for something they can have now. Especially if they see their friends having theirs now.

Mercedes therefore had a problem. Their worthy competitors, Porsche and BMW hit the market first. Would anyone wait around for a Mercedes?

This is when I first understood a notion that seems all-but-forgotten today, in person-to-person relationships and in marketing. 

The concept of the "long-lead."

A laymen's terms, when someone has a taste of something in say early February, but won't be ready for the full-meal for another year or two or three, that's a long-lead.

How do you keep them on the hook? How do you remind them you're worth it? How do you keep them engaged in foreplay if climax won't take place for a decade or so?

Here's an epigram that may or may not be epigrammatic. Advertising is more pausality than causality.

In other words, just because you run an ad don't expect an immediate response. Just because you apply for a job, or ask someone for a date, don't expect something to happen toot sweet.

In my waning days at Ogilvy, I started thinking about the difference between "transactional relationships" and "lifetime relationships." There were a core of people I would do anything for. There were more relationships I had that were largely transactional. 'You do this for me, I'll do this for you.' Quid pro quo.

Most of the ads you see in the world are transactionally-based. Get Verizon and for just $49/month and you can get another $49/month in hidden fees and have three out of five of your calls dropped. 

Some ads and advertisers think more life-long. They think in terms of long-leads. I've had a lot of people say to me that they bought something expensive in, say, 2022 based on an ad they saw in 1982. 

The lifetime marketer's trick is cultivating that long lead. Keeping on script but still interesting day in and day out for decades. That's a long-lead. And it's how much of the world works. Too many marketers want the sugar-rush of an immediate win. Often they call those wins "conquests." Like we're living in the middle-ages and they stormed our personal battlements.

For most marketer marketing "one-and-done." Only a few think "long-run-and-never-done."

Back to the Mercedes-Benz SLK. 

I had to figure out a touch strategy. How do you keep people interested? How do you say something interesting over years? How do you keep them defecting to a substitute product?

A lot of people come to me and ask me about finding a job. I tell them, usually, about the concept of the long-lead and the touch strategy. You don't usually decide you want a new job on Tuesday and get one by the weekend. Plus, the higher you get in the food-chain, the longer it takes for companies to make a decision.

You have to figure out how to drip out information and smiles over time. To keep people interested and salivating. 

You also have to look at your relationships with others. And cherish the ones that matter and keep them vibrant, even if "there's nothing in it for you."

Because respect for your fellow human and human kindness is the longest-lead of all. 

--

As an aside, I just saw this headline in "The Wall Street Journal." Bed Bath & Beyond was, to my mind, among the worst of the transactional advertisers. They did nothing to make themselves important, needed or interesting beyond creating the illusion that they had low prices and vast selection. They reinforced that with an avalanche of coupons. That was their "brand." Off-price.

Most big box stores today, and telcos and cable providers and airlines and advertising holding companies operate in a similar fashion. They have you by the ovaries because they have low prices and a near monopoly.

Why bother being decent to people when you believe you own them? For that matter, why hire salespeople, stock your shelves or even clean your store. Monopolies are seldom well-run businesses.

FWIW, Bed Bath and Beyond is the only store I ever shoplifted from. Years ago, they had a store in the financial district that opened at 7:30 AM. I had a client meeting at 8:30 AM. I figured I could pick up a shower-curtain liner and still make my meeting with ease.

It took me twenty minutes to find what I needed because there was no one around to ask for help. Then I walked to the cash registers which were un-attended. 

"Hello," I fairly bellowed. "Hello! I'm trying to check out! Is anybody here?"

I waited a good five minutes and no one responded. I was in danger of being late for my meeting. So I left the store with my contraband. 

That's exactly what happens over-and-again when people don't get treated well. They walk out. With their money.