I was a little surprised, and delighted to see a movie made recently about legendary showman and pioneering marketer P.T. Barnum. The Greatest Showman [DVD] [2017]
Now, Barnum is a somewhat misunderstood figure…probably best know for something he never actually said! In fact he was a very skilled promoter and entrepreneur and one of the early practitioners of what has come to be known as publicity and PR.
I confess I haven’t seen the film (yet) so here’s what Joe Vitale, probably the leading expert of our time on Barnum and his marketing methods, has to say about it…
“Because I wrote a popular business book on P.T. Barnum, called ‘There’s A Customer Born Every Minute’, numerous people have been telling me about the new movie titled The Greatest Showman.
The movie is a musical loosely based on the life of “The Greatest Showman” – P.T. Barnum.
I say “loosely” because the movie isn’t concerned about the facts; it focuses on the spirit of Barnum…
I found “The Greatest Showman” inspiring, uplifting, nurturing and contagiously happy.
Actor Hugh Jackman does a wonderful job of making Barnum understood and liked within the context of the times “The Greatest Showman” lived.
Barnum did in fact promote the unusual, and he was indeed a man behind ‘humbugs’ and ‘hoodwinks’.
He lived in the 1800s, and his promotions were new, unusual, entertaining, educational, and highly curious.
…As long as you turn off any fact checking in your mind, you can sit back and enjoy one of the most entertaining movies of 2017 and early 2018.”
You can read the whole post at “The Greatest Showman”.
Joe mentioned his book… There’s a Customer Born Every Minute: P.T. Barnum’s Amazing 10 “Rings of Power” for Creating Fame, Fortune, and a Business Empire Today–Guaranteed!
…and it’s well worth a read. The bulk of the book is taken up with chapters on what Joe calls Barnum’s “10 Rings of Power”, explaining the concept, providing examples of Barnum in action and how these ideas can be applied today. None of them now seem particularly controversial, but in Barnum’s time they would have been groundbreaking.
What strikes me the most about Barnum is that he was an outstanding promoter of his business, his clients and himself. He creatively used the available media channels and had a knack for grabbing attention, often through outrageous stunts.
In case you think this is merely of historical interest…consider contemporary business figures such as Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Steve Jobs. Each of them have used methods pioneered by Barnum to their advantage. It’s well worth considering how you might be able to do the same.