Roger Bannister’s Marketing Lesson

11 Jul Roger Bannister’s Marketing Lesson

The world of Track & Field changed forever on May 6, 1954.

That was the day when British track star, Roger Bannister, proved once and for all that the mythical four-minute-mile barrier could, in fact, be broken.

And yet Bannister’s record-breaking time of three minutes 59.4 seconds stood for a mere 46 days when Australian, John Landy, posted a time of three minutes 57.9 seconds on the 21st of June in Finland.

Sprinters Begin the Race (via Pixabay)

Almost more incredible, however, is the fact that in the year after Bannister broke the 4-minute mile, 37 other runners did the same. How is that possible?

The answer is simple: Once one person believed that he could actually run a mile in under four minutes and proved that it could be done, that mental blockage was removed for all other runners.

I believe the main Marketing Lesson one can learn from Roger Bannister is this:

Tradition is no reason to limit yourself.

Cases in Point:

• You don’t need to spend the bulk of your marketing budget in print advertising just because that’s what your competitors do.
  

  Sir Roger Bannister, circa 2009, via Wikipedia (credit Pruneau)

• Do you need to announce your new products at the same time as your competitors? Of course not.
• If your competitors are continually fighting to see who can come out with the lowest priced gizmo, what should you do? Perhaps you should focus on having the highest-priced premium brand in the marketplace.
• Last of all, just because most products have been sold in stores doesn’t mean you can’t sell similar products directly to your customers. In their homes. Or over the Internet.

I believe that one primary reason many people (and most companies) fail is because they set false limitations on themselves (or their firms).

Don’t.  Do.  That.

Research and understand what is being done, and try to figure out why your competitors are doing what they do. And then, see if you can come up with a better way to win — like breaking the four-minute-mile record.

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What do you think? Am I off-base or on point here? Please share your thoughts / comments below.

A marketing and communications expert, David L. Politis recently published his first book  —  66 RULES for Publicity Success: Boost Your Company’s Value for Pennies on the Dollar. David currently helps clients address their crises, publicity and marketing challenges through The David Politis Company.