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“You.” Isa spoke in a low, dangerous voice. “You are a terrible, grouchy, horrible person. You are mean to Miss Josie and Mr. Jeet. You are making us move for no reason. And now you are ruining our last Christmas here.”
Isa pushed the hair off her shoulders and put her violin up, clenched her eyes shut, and crashed her bow onto the strings.
The piece was “Les Furies”, and Isa’s playing was harsh and unrelenting. It was as if she was dueling against her own furry and disappointment and frustration and loneliness. Around her the brownstone braced itself against the wind and against her rage.
She played because the Beiderman was cruel.
She played because she had disappointed her parents and failed her siblings.
….She played because their mission had failed, and now there was nothing else she could do….
The music exploded through the brownstone, reverberating though the brick walls and making the air crackle….
…Isa’s bow slowed as she came to the end of the piece, suspended over the last, ethereal high note…. When Isa opened her eyes, she had forgotten where she was. The Beiderman stood in front of her, his face so pale, his skin almost looked translucent. Isa took down her violin and found herself reaching out to touch his arm. The Beiderman stepped back and lifted his head to look at her with miserable, watery eyes.
“I’m sorry”, the Beiderman rasped. He gazed at Isa and her violin for another long moment.
Then he closed the door in her face.
- excerpt, The Vanderbeekers of 141st St, Karina Yan Glaser
In my spare time, I like to read kids novels. I guess you can say I’m still a child at heart 🙂.
This year I went through “The Vanderbeekers” series.
The first book starts with the Vanderbeeker children gathered in the living room of their Harlem, NY brownstone home for a family meeting. Their parents inform them that their landlord Mr. Beiderman - a man they had never seen, despite his living in the top floor of the same brownstone - would NOT be renewing their lease.
And that the Vanderbeeker family would need to vacate their beloved apartment on the bottom two floors of the brownstone. By January 1st. Eleven days away.
The creative and determined Vanderbeeker children hatch a plan to get the elusive Mr. Beiderman - also known as the Beiderman - to like them so much that he would allow them to stay.
So the saga begins.
After ALL their attempts fail (comically), there is a grand showdown involving Isa - featured above - and they finally understand why he didn't renew their lease.
Mr. Beiderman wanted the Vanderbeekers out not because he didn’t like them.
He wanted them out because they, and especially Isa, reminded him too much of his own wife and daughter, who had been killed in a car accident years before.
So every thing the kids did to try to endear themselves to him… every nice, persistent, annoying but cute gesture… was driving their goal farther away.
He wanted to escape the pain, the constant contrast between his own lonely, grief-filled existence and their loud, joyful, and loving family life. And they were just shoving it into his face even more. Over and over again.
In the end, of course, things work out. Mr. Beiderman lets them stay, and they even get him to leave his apartment for the first time in years. Happily ever after and all, Pollyanna style.
But there’s a profound lesson in this story.
You can’t convince people to do something if you don’t know their WHY.
If you try that? You end up pushing them in the opposite direction.
It’s vital to remember this when marketing your product. You might come up with a concept that seems powerful and hard hitting and emotional. And maybe it is. But is it arousing the wrong emotions? Pushing the wrong buttons?
If it is - you’ll end up repelling the very consumers you’re trying to attract.
There’s only one way to avoid that. Through deep - not superficial - market research that taps into what’s happening between the lines. That gets to the roots of a market’s behavior, and understands not just what they’re doing, but why.
I have developed a comprehensive method that cracks the code to your market's motivations. A method that reads not just the what, but the why
So if you want to make sure you’re not pressing the wrong buttons and killing sales with your messaging - let’s talk.