I watched the London marathon yesterday after getting back from my own Sunday morning run. Now I’m tempted to run the marathon again – which would be my seventh time. The last time, ten years ago, I said “enough”. But I’m still running, almost daily, and the challenge beckons. This time it’s been given an extra spur by reading Haruki Murakami’s new book “What I talk about when I talk about running“. We’re a similar age, we both see running as essential to the discipline of our own writing, and I’ve enjoyed the book for those resonances.
But I’m sure the book will have surprised, and perhaps disappointed, many of the fans of Murakami’s novels (The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood etc). The book is about writing and running, but mainly it’s about running. Of course he relates one to the other, as do most running writers (myself included). I liked this example, describing Murakami’s experience as a bar owner, because it’s relevant to writers in the business world:
“Even when I ran my bar, I followed the same policy. A lot of customers came to the bar. If one out of ten enjoyed the place and said he’d come again, that was enough. If one out of ten was a repeat customer, then the business would survive. To put it the other way, it didn’t matter if nine out of ten didn’t like my bar. This realization lifted a weight off my shoulders. Still, I had to make sure that the one person who did like the place really liked it. In order to make sure he did, I had to make my philosophy and stance clear-cut, and patiently maintain that stance no matter what. This is what I learned through running a business.”
What he learnt goes to the heart of branding. Murakami’s words are worth keeping in mind when you’re writing for brands and being driven towards safer and blander choice of words. You can’t please everyone all the time. In fact, you shouldn’t even try. If you do, you’ll lose anything that is distinctive about your brand and not give people a good enough reason to come back to you.
Not every client will agree so you might have to argue your case. Keep at it. Only 26 miles to go.
Today, 29th October, I’ve signed up to run the Paris Marathon in April 2010. When you put something in writing it commits you to do it much more than simply saying the same words.