Humor deflates predatory competitors

We were once attacked by a predatory competitor.
He and his company wanted to drive us out of business.
A national magazine thought our story was worth telling.
It assigned a reporter to interview us and our competitor.
The publisher pretended he did not know who we were.
Pinned down, he called us a “dinky little newspaper.”
He also accused us of being “kooks.”
All of that went into the magazine article.
We even admitted he might be right about us.
But he was also trying to drive us out of business.
It was a David and Goliath story with humor.

We reported what he told the magazine writer.
We treated it as a joke and our readers did, too.
A friend made a large banner for us. It read:
“We’re the kooks from the dinky little newspaper.”
Another friend made t-shirts with this slogan.
We ran the slogan in our newspapers for months.
We wore the tees and carried the banner in local parades.
We turned a publisher’s putdown into a joke.
That ended up turning the joke on him.

The Golden State Warriors triggered that memory.
Critics called them the “Super Villains of the NBA.”
The Warriors have won two of the last three NBA titles.
In 17 post-season games, they beat the NBA’s best teams.
They lost one game and won 16, an astonishing record.
Their coach turned the putdown into a punch line.
He had “Super Villain” shirts made for them.
The team posed for “Super Villain” photos.
“Super Villain” was posted on their social media sites.
That loosened up the team and they played better.
They took themselves less seriously and had fun.

Think about how you can loosen up your team.
Could you take a putdown and turn it into a punch line?
Could you have tees made with a humorous slogan?
Think Cromer’s Peanuts’ “Guaranteed Worst in Town.”
Could you turn your USP into a funny saying?
Think of other ways you and your team can have fun.
This is serious business but we should be having fun.

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Next: Making a memorable mess.
Copyright 2017 The Bellune Company Inc.