Infiltrate Prospects Like Richard Dawkins

Arh Dawkins. The go-to militant atheist. Also the genius behind inventing the term “meme”. Way back in 1976.

Not resting on his laurels of being named the world’s greatest current thinker, he was talking at the recent Cannes ad fest about memes (as seen on this 3min vid).

He talks about wanting to find dna-like forms that aren’t dna. And gets into “cultural replicators”. The example he uses first is of a tune. A catchy song whistles around the planet like a virus (in a good way).

Any cultural phenomenon that travels like this is a meme. And the web has given rise to plenty of ways these how-funny-is-my-cat items can race to every corner of earth. Or even just around your target customer base.

And that got me thinking.

A term fairly well-known evokes “cultural architects”. The people that create opinion leadership. They do things, others then do them too. I think something’s a good idea, then that influences you to share my view. I stop wearing neckties, then so do you (not before time). That kind of vibe.

In every prospect, you’re selling an idea. One of signing-up with you and your firm and your product.

How can you become a successful meme?

Like if you were a song, that you’d be hummed by the attendees of every meeting?

There’s a book (a famous meme in itself) on how to do this in the online world that began with this 2000 Fast Company essay. It practically preaches that you must create your own winning meme to survive, let alone thrive.

In many ways it also suggests that to really score, you need to have the most infectious idea.

What’s the big idea of your bid?

What’s the real aspiration of those green-lighting the project?

How can you tap into that?

You’re not selling a $100k piece of widgetery, but the movement towards a desired emotion.

Own the language, and you can own the buying process.

And maybe everything you send, each piece of collateral, can not only reinforce this, but also make it easier to spread prospect-side.