The Secret of Starting an Instantly Successful Business

Creating Better Wants

July 2007 By Denny Hatch

multipage

On June 6, 2006, I devoted these pages to the tectonic change in the CBS Evening News. The piece was titled “WOMEN TAKE OVER AT LAST! With Couric and Logan on Board at CBS, Maybe the Evening News Will Come Alive.”

With CBS paying Couric $15 million a year and spending $2.9 million for a new set, I had high hopes that she and her electric, articulate chief foreign correspondent, Lara Logan, would bury their tedious male competitors.

Alas, a year later the program is moribund, with lower ratings than those garnered by temporary anchor Bob Schieffer. In a fascinating 6,300-word analysis of Couric—including a long interview with the perky former star of Today—Joe Hagan drills deep into the few pluses and many minuses of the network’s and Couric’s woes.

But the key to the problem—in my opinion—is found under the heading, “In the News,” elsewhere on this page.

Quite simply, Couric admits that she doesn’t know who the hell she is talking to.

Any business that does not have a handle on its customers and prospects will fail.

A successful business starts with customers (and prospects)—not its product or service.

Sunday, March 12, 1933
This may be one of the most important dates in the evolution of the American presidency. The scene was the Great Depression and in a drastic move, the new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, ordered a “bank holiday.” The banks were closed. Nobody could put money in or get money out.

That evening, Roosevelt went on the radio for the first of his 30 “Fireside Chats”—talking to the American people like a deeply caring uncle. It was the first time that the president had communicated with—and actually bonded with—the electorate on a nationwide basis.

Roosevelt said that before he went on the air, he imagined a family gathered around the radio listening to his words. The family was very real in his mind and what he said was common sense from his heart.

FDR had in his head what Katie Couric does not. He is generally acknowledged to be one of the great presidents.

Knowing Your Audience
In an early edition of my newsletter, WHO’S MAILING WHAT!, the great freelance copywriter, Malcolm Decker, described how he goes about writing a direct mail letter:

I develop as clear a profile of my prospect as the available research offers and then try to match it up with someone I know and “put him in a chair” across from me. Then I write to him more or less conversationally.