Photo credit: Sara Goldsmith

I am currently working with someone from another part of the world on a test venture. Although putting together the test venture was relatively easy, that was due largely to our having a pre-existing relationship.

More problematic was my partner’s understanding of the venture itself.

We grew up in different cultures. Worse, our cultures were, in many ways, exact opposites of one another.

I am American, where we truly have an embarrassment of riches. In America, we have so much wealth that it actually takes conscious effort to recognize it all.

Water and electricity are pumped into our homes without interruption. Smooth, well maintained roads allow us to move freely about. We have so much food that it sometimes spoils and gets thrown away before we get around to eating it. TV, radio, phone service, free libraries, schools, police and fire protection, curbside trash pickup… The list just just goes on and on.

We have hundreds of channels on TV and dozens of restaurant choices within a few miles of practically every home in America. We have abundance coming out our ears.

As a consequence, what do Americans value? Scarcity. Anything which is rare has value. Anything one-of-a-kind has tremendous value. Things that are antique and for which more can’t be produced — reproductions are not the same thing — have value.

Contrast that with my partner, who grew up in a third world country where everything is scarce. Electricity gets turned off on a regular schedule because the grid can’t support continuous delivery. Food and water are not things to be taken for granted. There are few cars because so few can afford them.

In that world, the very concept that scarcity has value is something completely alien.

It took some lengthy discussions but once we each understood the context of one another’s way of thinking, it was a smooth partnership.

The same applies to your relationship with your customers. While the differences in background and thinking may be less extreme, it’s no less important that you take the time to understand your customers and properly explain yourself to them.

Photo provided by MoreSatisfyingPhotos

I’ve never had the all-too-common fear of clowns. In fact, I truly don’t understand it.

Most of the people I’ve talked with about it usually aren’t afraid of Ronald McDonald. And many aren’t afraid of rodeo clowns either. (Is that clown bigotry?)

So apparently some clowns are scarier than others.

A friend recently hypothesized why rodeo clowns are less scary than some other kinds of clowns: it’s because they willingly put themselves in danger to save cowboys from really large and really angry animals.

So I guess that makes rodeo clowns sort of like the firemen of redneck entertainment.

In fact I wonder if, when presented in that way, it might not persuade some small percentage of people who might otherwise be afraid of even rodeo clowns to change their views.

This may be a highly unusual take on marketing but after all, marketing is the art of persuasion.

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 Rodeo Clowns are the Firemen of Redneck Entertainment

 Fear of clowns?

 People who are afraid of clowns usually aren’t afraid of Ronald McDonald.

 People who are afraid of clowns usually aren’t afraid of rodeo clowns.

 Isn’t that clown bigotry?

 Apparently some clowns are scarier than others.

 Rodeo clowns save cowboys from really large and really angry animals.