I have a Golden Rule for food preparation, which if I’m honest, can be a little restrictive. If  a dish takes longer to prepare and cook than it does to eat, then it’s off the menu.  Anything else just seems to throw the effort/reward relationship out of balance for me. I’ve yet to find too many kindred spirits though, and if the popularity of  TV cookery and food  programmes is anything to go by, I appear to be in a very tiny minority. But appearances can be deceptive!

It will probably never happen, but  occasionally I have a fantasy about appearing on Masterchef. Greg Wallace and John Torode are whispering conspiratorially  off camera as I make my entrance…

 “So John, I gather this Harrison bloke is something of a novice?”

 “That’s right Greg, but I’m expecting big things from him today.

“Why’s that?”

 “Well he’s been talking himself up Greg,…something  about blowing all the other competitors away with his dish. He’s really up for it.”

“That sounds exciting John, I like a chef with confidence. So what’s he cooking for us today?”

John refers to his notes…

“For his main course, he’s preparing baked Haricots in a light tomato jus on a bed of grill-seared Ciabatta, and for his pudding he will be serving a fermented milk and summer fruit thickening, presented in a foil preserved crock. This should be interesting, I can’t wait to see how he pods the Haricots…wait a minute…what’s he doing with that can opener?”

“Looks like he’s got a tin with a blue label there, John. Can you make out the lettering on the side? H…E…I…”

And then John would refer back to his notes and the penny would drop…

“Strike me down with a Didgerydoo Greg, the shyster is doing beans on toast and ripping the lid off a strawberry yoghurt!”

Cooking is huge business on  TV these days. Aside from Masterchef you’ve got Come Dine With Me, Ready Steady Cook, The Great British Bake Off,  Hell’s Kitchen, The Hairy Bikers, Two Greedy Italians…and myriad series and shows featuring the likes of  Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall,  and Heston Blumenthal.

And all of this is a bit puzzling to me – and not just because I don’t cook. You see, at first glance it doesn’t make sense. It’s a bit like radio conjuring. The main senses impacted upon by the activity don’t come into play.  You can’t taste anything through your TV. You can’t smell anything through your TV.  All you can do is look and listen. To add to the confusion, the effect on cooking and eating habits is nowhere near as great as you’d expect from the number of people watching. . We’re still a nation of take away and convenience food addicts.

So why the popularity, and what’s going on?

The answer tells us something important about human psychology, what really interests us, and ultimately what you need to do if you want to  get peoples attention and draw them towards your business, product or service.

Although there is a fair amount of interest in food and cookery, it’s at a much lower level than the viewing figures for the shows would suggest. In most of the popular programmes, food and cooking are little more than  a vehicle for serving up (do you see what I did there?) what people are much more widely fascinated by – theatre, drama, characters and personality.

The success of Masterchef is partly due to the food and cookery content, but much of the audience tunes in for something else – personalities,  drama and jeopardy (Will the dish work out or be a disaster…who will be knocked out…who will cope and who will crumble?)  Come Dine With Me is more about the interaction and conflict between competitors, than about food. Anything with Gordon, Jamie or Nigella is driven by their personalities. A large proportion of the audience tune-in to see them, rather than to get cookery tips that they’ll act upon.

In fact, select any cookery or food  programme on TV and  you will find either drama or personalities holding the thing together. The connection? It’s not about food…it’s not about cookery…it’s about people! People are far more interested in other people than they are in anything else. If  they have an interest in other things, it’s at its strongest when there’s a connection with a human story, drama or personality.

People come first. Other stuff comes a very poor second.

This has huge implications for anyone marketing products and services. If you attempt to sell things by talking about the product or service in isolation, you’ll lose a large part of your audience straight away. It would be a bit like a cookery show without the format or the characters The most successful marketing does what the most successful cookery shows do…it  creates personalities, it creates stories with a human angle, and it places the  ‘product ‘ in a human context. It gives it life.

Whatever you’re selling, give some thought to how you can bring it to life through stories, drama and interesting characters. How was your business formed, what difficulties or pieces of luck have you experienced along the way, what characters or personalities have been connected with your business or product? The answers to this type of question are what can raise your marketing from the banal to the barnstorming.

Remember this one thing and you’ll multiply your chances of success…people are interested in themselves first, other people second…and what you want them to buy,  a very poor third.

 

* My latest book ‘Why Didn’t They Tell Me? – 99 Shameless Success Secrets They Don’t Teach You At Eton, Harrow Or Even The Classiest Comprehensive’ is now published. Go to www.streetwisenews.com/why for full details.