Copy, Copy, Copy: How to Do Smarter Marketing by Using Other People's Ideas

3 ‘WHAT KINDA THING?': MAPS AND DRAWING What kind of thing are you trying to change?

“ I have always liked drawing: when you draw you see more intensely. ”

— Henry Moore

WHAT

What this chapter will cover:

Knowing what kind of problem you've got is an essential step in working out from where you should be copying – what kind of thing is appropriate to copy.

So, this chapter will explore a way of drawing and mapping behaviours against one another which really helps you nail these ‘what kinda?' questions.

This approach is based on the map my colleague Professor Alex Bentley and I developed back in 2007 and which we described in a number of articles and in 2011's I'll Have What She's Having.

The important thing, here, is for you to learn to draw the map yourself, and by drawing think about ‘what kind of thing' you're wrestling with – ‘what kinda thing' you're trying to change.

So, to start with, here are some thoughts on drawing and thinking.

Get yourself a pen and some paper^* and we'll begin.

^* Or even some of John's fabulous Artefact Cards.

DRAWING IS THINKING

One afternoon in the wet summer of 1880, the newly married Robert Louis Stevenson started sketching a map of a make-believe island to amuse himself and his stepson. Those few strokes of the pen were to transform his professional life and reputation.

‘As I pored upon my map of “Treasure Island” the future characters ...