Pick a fight seemingly based on moral terms, creating a false "us versus them" dynamic.
Your aim is to create a bite-sized narrative whereby you can classify yourself into what may be viewed as the positive or "good" side of a morals-based fight. The ultimate goal of this Law of Hype is to invoke a powerful emotional response, getting shareholders emotionally attached to your stock's outcome. Most people lack psychological defenses most of the time to begin with, so if you can somehow elicit emotional responses to your message of a higher morality, even folks with robust intellectual armor will be vulnerable to your hype. You are best off choosing a company that is in an industry or has a product/service that can be construed as doing good for the world, e.g. a "green energy" company like Tesla could be utilized as a hype vehicle for a "war against global warming." It is you and your shareholders/customers versus stodgy old oil companies and dirty, polluting fossil fuels. If you have a cancer diagnostic product, the message is it is you and your investors versus cancer....versus the icy grip of Death itself. Your company mission and hype-inducing shareholder rallying cry is to "eradicate cancer." Think of the possibilities and positive moral implications. These sorts of "fights" trigger the masses to invest based on emotional reasons rather than empirical ones, which is precisely what you want when your company will never actually generate cash.
Observance of the Law:
Exact Sciences: “Our Mission: To help eradicate colorectal cancer."
Despite Exact Science's producing an inferior, more expensive product in a crowded diagnostic field, CEO Kevin Conroy has manifested an army of mindless surrogates who defend his nest egg with impassioned garble that neglects any kind of empirical evidence or discussion on valuation all because the company mission and investment thesis are buttoned down to a bite-sized one-liner that tugs at emotional heart strings. Even if you are not out to diagnose cancer, there is hope for you to "Pick a Fight" no matter your industry. For example, even Spencer Rascoff at Zillow, which has a third-rate real estate information website that is often outdated and riddled with inaccurate information, has articulated a fight that becomes about helping improve market transparency for consumers to find a "place for their life to happen."
Keys to the Law:
Like all other Laws of Hype, style matters infinitely more than substance. When thinking about implementing Law #3, you will realize how important Law #1 is, as you must first delude yourself into thinking you actually are doing good for society, even if in reality you are causing mass mis-allocation of capital away from truly innovative products and services who are not as good at hyping their prospects. Your Fight or Ideal must be simple, e.g. Exact Science's "eradicate cancer"--people won't swallow it unless it is simple and requires very little mental effort.
Interpretation:
Worried about global warming and the sustainability of life on Mother Earth? Buy a Tesla Model S, a $100k, 3,600 pound luxury sedan that is charged by fossil fuel powered utilities...but doesn't use gasoline.
"The overriding goal of Tesla is to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport." - Canned "stand for ideal" line of hype that Elon Musk says every chance he gets. Teslas cars are extremely unfriendly for the environment over the life of the car, so while every bicycle manufacturer and train company has done immeasurably more for the "advent of sustainable transport," their CEOs will not go down in history as a "greenie" legend or Laws of Hype Hall of Famers.
People want to feel like they belong in your group and on your side of the moral issue with the implication that many others do not belong. We all need an enemy to pinpoint to blame for our frustrations--give people a moral fight to fight..an outlet for their frustration.
Without a doubt the best industries that will help you create a message of higher morality or image of saving the world would be biotechnology and anything green related. There is a reason these areas experience repeated bubbles in quick succession. It is because they make investors feel so warm and fuzzy inside. For biotech especially, any attempt at valuation is based on intangible things that are years away from fruition, while in the interim investors can dream big.
There is a training montage scene in Batman Begins that captures the essence of Law #3:
Henri Ducard “…if you devote yourself to an ideal, you become something else entirely.”
Bruce Wayne: "Which is?"
Henri Ducard: "Legend, Mr. Wayne."
And in Man of Steel:
"The symbol of the House of El means "Hope". Embodied within that hope is the fundamental belief in the potential of every person to be a force for good. That's what you can bring them...You will give the people an ideal to strive towards."
Authority:
Exact Sciences, Kevin Conroy:
"And it's an important disease. It's a number 2 cancer-killer. It's number 3 in terms of overall incidents. That's despite all this screening that goes on today...This is a multi-billion dollar global opportunity. It meets a massive need in the market and we're starting with a 100 person sales force which will grow over time. Our mission as a company is to play a role in the eradication of colon cancer. This is something that can be achieved." - Conory, Cannacord Genuity Growth Conference, August 13th, 2014.
Your aim is to create a bite-sized narrative whereby you can classify yourself into what may be viewed as the positive or "good" side of a morals-based fight. The ultimate goal of this Law of Hype is to invoke a powerful emotional response, getting shareholders emotionally attached to your stock's outcome. Most people lack psychological defenses most of the time to begin with, so if you can somehow elicit emotional responses to your message of a higher morality, even folks with robust intellectual armor will be vulnerable to your hype. You are best off choosing a company that is in an industry or has a product/service that can be construed as doing good for the world, e.g. a "green energy" company like Tesla could be utilized as a hype vehicle for a "war against global warming." It is you and your shareholders/customers versus stodgy old oil companies and dirty, polluting fossil fuels. If you have a cancer diagnostic product, the message is it is you and your investors versus cancer....versus the icy grip of Death itself. Your company mission and hype-inducing shareholder rallying cry is to "eradicate cancer." Think of the possibilities and positive moral implications. These sorts of "fights" trigger the masses to invest based on emotional reasons rather than empirical ones, which is precisely what you want when your company will never actually generate cash.
Observance of the Law:
Exact Sciences: “Our Mission: To help eradicate colorectal cancer."
Despite Exact Science's producing an inferior, more expensive product in a crowded diagnostic field, CEO Kevin Conroy has manifested an army of mindless surrogates who defend his nest egg with impassioned garble that neglects any kind of empirical evidence or discussion on valuation all because the company mission and investment thesis are buttoned down to a bite-sized one-liner that tugs at emotional heart strings. Even if you are not out to diagnose cancer, there is hope for you to "Pick a Fight" no matter your industry. For example, even Spencer Rascoff at Zillow, which has a third-rate real estate information website that is often outdated and riddled with inaccurate information, has articulated a fight that becomes about helping improve market transparency for consumers to find a "place for their life to happen."
Keys to the Law:
Like all other Laws of Hype, style matters infinitely more than substance. When thinking about implementing Law #3, you will realize how important Law #1 is, as you must first delude yourself into thinking you actually are doing good for society, even if in reality you are causing mass mis-allocation of capital away from truly innovative products and services who are not as good at hyping their prospects. Your Fight or Ideal must be simple, e.g. Exact Science's "eradicate cancer"--people won't swallow it unless it is simple and requires very little mental effort.
Interpretation:
Worried about global warming and the sustainability of life on Mother Earth? Buy a Tesla Model S, a $100k, 3,600 pound luxury sedan that is charged by fossil fuel powered utilities...but doesn't use gasoline.
"The overriding goal of Tesla is to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport." - Canned "stand for ideal" line of hype that Elon Musk says every chance he gets. Teslas cars are extremely unfriendly for the environment over the life of the car, so while every bicycle manufacturer and train company has done immeasurably more for the "advent of sustainable transport," their CEOs will not go down in history as a "greenie" legend or Laws of Hype Hall of Famers.
People want to feel like they belong in your group and on your side of the moral issue with the implication that many others do not belong. We all need an enemy to pinpoint to blame for our frustrations--give people a moral fight to fight..an outlet for their frustration.
Without a doubt the best industries that will help you create a message of higher morality or image of saving the world would be biotechnology and anything green related. There is a reason these areas experience repeated bubbles in quick succession. It is because they make investors feel so warm and fuzzy inside. For biotech especially, any attempt at valuation is based on intangible things that are years away from fruition, while in the interim investors can dream big.
There is a training montage scene in Batman Begins that captures the essence of Law #3:
Henri Ducard “…if you devote yourself to an ideal, you become something else entirely.”
Bruce Wayne: "Which is?"
Henri Ducard: "Legend, Mr. Wayne."
And in Man of Steel:
"The symbol of the House of El means "Hope". Embodied within that hope is the fundamental belief in the potential of every person to be a force for good. That's what you can bring them...You will give the people an ideal to strive towards."
Authority:
Exact Sciences, Kevin Conroy:
"And it's an important disease. It's a number 2 cancer-killer. It's number 3 in terms of overall incidents. That's despite all this screening that goes on today...This is a multi-billion dollar global opportunity. It meets a massive need in the market and we're starting with a 100 person sales force which will grow over time. Our mission as a company is to play a role in the eradication of colon cancer. This is something that can be achieved." - Conory, Cannacord Genuity Growth Conference, August 13th, 2014.
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