I was working with a copywriter a few months back, helping him develop some P-O-P content for a grocery store chain.
We were looking for a different angle on the store's produce department when an image of corn on the cob popped into my head.
Corn is a miracle, I remembered.
About eight years prior, I planted corn for the first time. With great anticipation, I pushed each seed about an inch below the dirt, covered them all with more dirt, and then watered my rows.
Within a week, the first signs of new life sprouted from the ground.
By the end of the summer, I was walking through stalks taller than me. And each one had real corn attached! It was thrilling.
All the beauty of my humble corn patch and all the corn it produced came from a little brown bag of dry seed dropped into dry dirt.
That's when I realized that corn is a miracle. A common, everyday miracle.
That understanding led to content that was different than “Hey, come buy our corn!” The message was about the abundance that we enjoy in this nation, and a reminder of just how lucky we are to have what we have.
And maybe, I thought, my words could help a few people enjoy their own moment of awe and appreciation.
From a marketing standpoint, that story always reminds me that there's more than one way to present a product or service to an audience.
As a human being, it reminds me that corn is far from the only miracle that we've been gifted with in this life.
In this season of miracles, I wish for you that realization every day.
Merry Christmas.
