What Would Midas Do?

For your next challenge, consider what you would do if you had all the resources you could possibly need or want.

Apply a little bit of Brain Balm and see what you come up with.

Almost all of my marketing class projects are for small firms, solopreneurs, or non-profits. Even when working with larger firms, we never have an unlimited budget.

Or do we?

Well, no, we don’t.

As far as money goes, anyway. But that restriction, those lines within which we must keep our crayons, does give us a different kind of freedom. We can create and apply our brain balm to the marketing issues we have been asked to address.

It can be frustrating. When asked to solve a problem, our first reaction might be to ask what resources we have at hand. That’s a good idea. A better idea, asked earlier, would be to get an understanding of our client’s desired outcome. It’s hard to get to a destination when you don’t know where you’re going, and once we have a better idea of where we’re going, we can set our course for adventure.

And here’s where the unlimited budget part comes in.

I’ve found that when we know what our budgetary restraints are, we are immediately thrust into The Price is Right mode. We try to cobble together ideas that will add up as close to our budget as possible, without going over.

Instead, without a budget, we are encouraged to think big. Think crazy. What would Bezos do? What would LeBron do? What would Beyoncé do?

Okay, take a breath.

We have a point of reference now. We can build from this and soon, when we share this idea with our client, we have to be realistic. Eventually.

And when we see the lines on the paper we have a few choices.

1. Stay within the lines. We might have a budget in real life or at least a reality check but at least we have a big idea, not a lot of little ones, cobbled together… or…
2. Go outside the lines anyway. Convince our partner that this idea, our plan, is so strong, that the return on the investment is so wonderful, that they have to work with us to redraw the picture.

What do you think of that?