With yet another sex scandal unfolding in the media this week featuring Congressman Anthony Weiner, it’s a great time to learn some valuable lessons in marketing from truly bad and sad behavior. Let’s take a look at these four priceless opportunities:
- Lying is always a bad idea, once you breach your market’s trust it is often impossible to win them back (many of Weiner’s constituents are calling for his resignation.)
- When you have a captive market (Weiner’s wife) don’t waste your time chasing markets that aren’t yours (Weiner’s inappropriate twitter friend.)
- Stay focused on your core business (being a congressman in his case), make sure that any outside activities you indulge in don’t hinder your core success. (Surely in this day and age, he can’t be so stupid as to think that his personal conduct won’t reflect poorly on his professional abilities.)
- The lines between personal and professional are exceedingly blurry in the internet age. Get smart, if you wouldn’t shout it in Times Square or put it on a billboard there, don’t speak it, tweet it, skype it, text it, email it, blog it, facebook it, or otherwise share it. It isn’t secure and it will become public domain.
It always amazes me when someone with a high public profile gets in trouble because they can’t keep their pants zipped. From Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent infidelity to former President Bill Clinton and the blue dress fiasco, when you are in any business that is PUBLIC you have an obligation to behave appropriately whether you are in the spotlight or out of it, as really even when you think you are in private, you aren’t. That is the price of fame.
