This is one of my favorite posts I wrote while at Solid Cactus. I am sharing it here:
I was on a conference call where a colleague uttered ‘silly goose.’ My imagination wandered from that marketing call to this blog post:
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away…
…stories were told and passed down from generation to generation. Long before Guttenberg and Gates, moral lessons were taught by way of fantastic stories. Fables and fairy tales are two types of folklore that preceded the storybook and the Internet.
Fables illustrate a lesson and, in a way, resemble today’s art of viral marketing because they were transmitted from person to person. (Although, it was orally since Edison and electricity were just, well, a fairy tale waiting to be told.) How information can spread is just one thing about eCommerce we can learn from fables, fairy tales and other classic folklore.
1. Slow and Steady the Only Way to Win eCommerce Race
The Tortoise the Hare is a great illustration of the time and effort needed to start and run a successful eCommerce business.
Slow is the new fast.
Racing to get a store online can lead to design and programming mistakes – and settling — from the start. Bypassing solid search engine optimization efforts to instead utilize black-hat tactics can hurt your rankings in the long run. Investing in irrelevant email addresses from a shady list broker instead of building a loyal customer base for email marketing can make you look like a spammer, not a winner. As another old saying goes, take off like a rocket, fizzle like a rocket.
2. Not By the Hair on Your Chinny Chin Chin Should You Ever Slack on Shopping Cart Software
Which of these three little pigs will survive?
The Three Little Pigs, or rather the third in this swineful trio, can teach us a lot about laying the right foundation for an online store. The first (straw) and second (wood) houses were blown down by the big bad wolf. Be sure your store is solidly built, brilliantly designed and safe and secure. If so, it will remain standing like the brick house.
3. If You Become Hungry Like the Wolf, Curb Your Appetite!
From Aesop’s Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing we learn to never deceive a customer; liars are always discovered and eventually pay for their actions. The wolf in the story disguised himself as a sheep to blend in with the herd, but in the end was killed by a shepherd. In eCommerce, don’t over promise and under deliver or be misleading in marketing messages. Be transparent. Otherwise, your customers may eat YOU for dinner.
4. Don’t Attempt to Crack Open Any Golden Eggs You May Have Laid
Gold eggs are good, but don't kill your goose!
In Aesop’s The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs, a couple found that, each day, one of their geese was laying a golden egg. In a moment of greed, they cut open the poor goose to find out its secret so they could get richer, faster Turns out, the innards were the same as a real goose. While you do need to find the secret to success – and somewhat protect those trade secrets – let this fable be a reminder to not want TOO much and that greed can sometimes destroy the source of good.
5. Caution! If Spill the Milk, You May Cry
In Aesop’s The Milkmaid and Her Pail, a young maiden drifts off into dream land while carrying a bucket of freshly collected milk on her head. She thinks of making cream, which can turn to butter, which can be sold to give her money to buy eggs. She can raise the chickens and sell them, using the profits to trade in her milkmaid outfit for an evening gown to wear so all the townsmen will love her. As she begins to act out her daydream, she spills all the milk, her dreams suddenly becoming just a puddle. The moral of this fable is to not count your chickens before they hatch (also an old proverb). If you are dreaming up an eCommerce store idea you think will be successful, take the steps to make it successful. Take your time and focus. Don’t instantly get the sports car!
THE END
P. S. What childhood lessons do you remember from fables and fairy tales that you may still apply to your personal or professional life?
And, if you enjoy this type of blog post, check out Why your business should be more like Weird Al . by my friend Lauren.