Influence in Action: How to Go from Unknown to Essential in 4 Steps

By Chakisse Newton, President, Cardinal Consulting, LLC

Have you ever wanted to sell a new idea to an unresponsive or uniformed audience? This month’s Influence in Action Case Study shows how to go from unknown to essential in four simple steps: suggest, simplify, show and solidify.

First, a pop quiz: what fruit “belongs” in a bowl of Corn Flakes? If you said, “bananas,” you’ve been influenced by some of the cleverest marketing in history. Did you know that this top-selling fruit is not native to America and once had to be sold to a skeptical American audience? Learn from the example of the now ubiquitous fruit and you too can sell your new ideas.

1.  Suggest: Suggest how others can use and benefit from your idea, product or solution. No one considered putting bananas in cereal until the United Fruit Company partnered with Kellogg’s (the maker of Corn Flakes) to suggest that bananas were a perfect breakfast companion. Fruit growers also introduced recipes (from baby food to desserts) to further show the versatility of the new fruit.

2. Simplify: Simplify next steps and make it easy for others to embrace your new idea. Kellogg’s was the first company to offer coupons on the box of a product to encourage Corn Flake’s purchasers to buy bananas. (The United Fruit Company must have been influential indeed because Kellogg’s even paid for the coupons.)

3. Show: Show your suggestion in action. When the banana was first introduced in 1876, it was considered improper for women to eat them in public. The solution? Fruit companies sent out postcards showing prim and proper Victorian ladies eating half-peeled bananas. The result? Soaring sales and social acceptance for a new product.

4. Solidify: Solidify your idea with branding so that your idea or product doesn’t become a commodity. While there are many brands of bananas available in your supermarket, the Chiquita banana has the most sales. It introduced a solid brand early (remember the “Chiquita Banana” lady?) with a catchy jingle that many of us could probably still sing from memory.

If you can identify ways to suggest, simplify, show and solidify your new idea, you too can increase your influence and move from Unknown to Essential.

Interested in knowing more about the origin of this case study or the history of bananas? Check out Dan Koeppel’s book, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World.

 © 2009 Chakisse Newton. All Rights Reserved.