Epistle to a young journalist (2): Journalism, Marketing And Michael Jackson

My dearly beloved young journalist. I illustrated my first epistle ‘21 Things to Study Before You Die,’ with the picture of Michael Jackson and you wondered: Why Michael Jackson?
Michael Jackson is a study in success, a study in journalism, a study in marketing and a study in the finality of man. Since this column is about journalism, let me start with how Michael Jackson connects with journalism.
Journalism (or better still, news) is about the unusual. It is about oddities. It is about the bizarre. And in his life and times, nobody embodied the art of the bizarre more than the man they called ‘Wacko Jacko.’ He was the queer one. He was the unusual one. He was the true ‘king of the tabloids’ who knew how to keep himself in the news even when there was nothing to report, who would dangle his baby from the balcony of his storey building hotel, all to get the attention of the media. Each time he sneezed, the world of journalism not only caught cold but went into frenzy. Even from his grave, Michael Jackson defines and orchestrates the news. His story is far, far from over.
Michael Jackson through his sudden death was like what is called in English literature a ‘deus ex machina’ that came out of the blues to rejuvenate the global newspaper industry suffering from circulation meltdown and near-death situation.
My dear young journalist, I want you to learn the fact that global icons who die young make good copies. Like Lady Diana, Michael Jackson, in life and death, was a good copy. And he is still a good copy. A good copy is any story that is an editor’s delight, any story that people would love to read and keep. A good copy is any story that is newsworthy.
In your life as a journalist, you must always go out in search of good copies. That is what would make you to succeed in this business. In journalism, you are as good as your last scoop. As Shakespeare would say, the evil that men do lives after them. Let me add that in journalism, the scoop that you cover lives after you. It is what people remember you by. Generations of Nigerian journalists would remember the story of a journalist by name Segun Osoba who lived by unearthing scoops. His biggest scoop was the discovery of the body of the assassinated Nigeria’s Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa in the first of the series of coups that afflicted our beloved country.
The more scoops and the more good copies you churn out, the more you stand the chance of climbing to the apex of the journalism ladder. Boy, you may be too young to remember Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward of The Washington Post fame. Just go to Google. They were the two crack investigative reporters who uncovered the Watergate Scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon of the United States. Today, Bernstein and Woodward are legends on account of Watergate. You too can become a legend tomorrow if you work diligently. You too can make your mark.
In my first epistle, I enjoined you to study the past masters in your field if you want to achieve excellence. Michael Jackson understood that law. He studied and learnt from the past masters in the field of music and show business. Past masters like Jackie Wilson, James Brown, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, the Beatles and everybody he needed to understudy. He was a voracious listener of music. In those days, as his brother Marlon told the world at that funeral concert, Michael would disguise as an old man and walk into record shops to buy lots and lots of CDs.
In dancing, Michael Jackson acknowledges Jackie Wilson and James Brown as his greatest influences. He says of Jackie Wilson: “In the entertainment business, there are leaders and followers. And I just want to say I think Jackie Wilson was a wonderful entertainer.” He paid this tribute when he was receiving a Grammy for Thriller in 1984 as the best album of the year. Thriller ended up as the best album of all times. So, what is your own Thriller? If you die, what would you regard as your greatest achievement in this life? What would you love to be remembered for?
When James Brown died, Michael Jackson had this to say of his “master” J.B.: “Ever since I was a small child, no more like six years old, my mother would wake me no matter what time it was if I was sleeping, no matter what I was doing, to watch the television to see the master at work. And when I saw his move, I was mesmerized. I had never seen a performer perform like James Brown, and right then and there I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life because of James Brown.”
One day, a new king of pop would emerge to pay tribute to Michael Jackson as the past master that showed him the way. Such is life. Someone must blaze the path for others to follow. In my career, a newspaper legend called Dele Giwa was my master, my mentor and the man who showed me the way to go in journalism. I thank him wherever he is today.
Now, my son, don’t limit yourself to journalism, if you want to succeed in life. Be multi-disciplinary. Learn everything there is to learn. Learn management. Learn marketing. That is why I wrote those two voluminous books, one on management and the other on marketing: 50 NIGERIAN CORPORATE STRATEGISTS and NIGERIA’S MARKETING MEMOIRS. Those two books changed my life and my thinking for good. From those books, I got to learn that life without marketing is lifelessness. It’s hollow. It’s emptiness. It’s darkness. It’s like winking in the dark to a girl, to use that famous analogy.
Michael Jackson knew marketing and he benefitted from its knowledge. Sensing his marketability, Pepsi used him many years ago to fight Coca-Cola to a standstill. He became the face of the new generation called the “Pepsi Generation.” With Michael Jackson, Pepsi outsold Coca-Cola which made Coca-Cola to panic and to introduce a “New Coke” formula which failed in the market and plunged Coke into deeper quagmire. My son, study marketing and you would never regret it. Do you remember the times when Michael Jackson’s caught fire when shooting the Pepsi advert?
Michael Jackson is a study in branding. Even in his songs, you can hear a master marketer at work. Here is an analysis of Michael Jackson’s lyrics from a marketing perspective:
Wanna Be Starting Something tells you to be innovative when you are coming out with a new product. In marketing, the rule is: innovate or die. Always innovate. Be a step ahead of the competition.
Rock With You tells you to get close your customers and to rock with them. Excite them. Thrill them. Build a long lasting relationship with your readers, with your customers. That is one of the commandments of marketing.
Got To Be There. Have a vision in life. Have a goal. Have a purpose. Have a dream. And strive to attain that dream. Strive to be there.
Don’t Stop ‘Till Get enough. Aim higher and higher. Aim for excellence. Don’t stop until you attain your set goal, your vision, your whatever. Don’t give up. Don’t stop as you jump the hurdles of life. Life is an Olympics. You must keep on jumping. You must keep on raising the bar until you hit your own Thriller.
Beat it. In the competitive marketplace, the enemies are out to get you. They’ll kick you, then they beat you. Then they tell you it’s fair. Michael Jackson tells us in life and in marketing, “no one wants to be defeated. Everybody wants to stay alive.”
Man In The Mirror. Everybody wants to create a world beater, but before you do it, you have to start first with looking at yourself in the mirror and knowing exactly who you are and what you can offer. Change yourself before you can change the world, Jackson says.
We Are The World. Globalize. Make the world your benchmark. Aim at world standards in everything you do. Aim to rule the world. This is a song of compassion enjoining us to give to the world, to give to the poor. After all, we are the world and we are children of one God. Our responsibility is to make this world a better place than we found it.
Off The Wall. Michael Jackson tells us in this song that we should not forget to enjoy ourselves after working so hard. Let’s learn to relax. It’s not all work, work, work. He sings: “So tonight...gotta leave that nine to five upon the shelf...And just enjoy yourself. Groove. Let the madness in the music get you. Life ain’t so bad at all...If you live it off the wall.”
Now, you can understand why I illustrated my piece last week with Michael Jackson’s photograph.
*Mike Awoyinfa is on Facebook and on Twitter.