Be Careful With The Red Matter

Just Be Careful With the “Red Matter”
In the month of June, a new (and totally awesome) Star Trek movie came out, & in it the evil Romulan Nero decided to neutralize Spock’s home planet, basically due to a working relationship gone bad. Nero was bitter, & with good reason, but spent lots of time growling around in the time-space continuum, seeking vengeance through dispensing a red matter substance, which was cute & bouncy to look at, but one drop was apocalytically devastating. We have a similar substance floating around these days here on planet Earth.
The red matter in our industry (and life in general) always comes when all of the gloom-&- doom types see challenges as roadblocks and simply give up. Or even worse, when the alarmists of the world try & suck other companies into their own “black whole of doom and drama” with negative outlooks on anything and everything from industry collapse to civil war. The aftermarket recently witnessed a huge victory in the prebate decision for “Static Control” (HP) and against Lexmark. This decade long battle has surely changed the landscape of the aftermarket, but admittedly, for awhile it did look gloomy. Thank God WE NEVER bought into any of the drama, the negativity, or the doomsday prophets lies! Now, as evidenced by a million dollar month last month, it’s clear to see that our industry indeed does have a very bright future ahead.
Make no mistake about it, our economy’s still faced with high unemployment rates, & balance sheet numbers that still look like they did get hit with a Romulan onslaught. Yet despite all present circumstances we must press on toward continuing our daily business, and keep the faith that alls well that ends well. This daily business includes an ongoing choice of seeing these challenges in the MOST positive light. Companies can be encouraged by the prebate case, and can look at growth in the MFP and color segments as indicators things are still going to be okay. The evil Romulan Nero dies badly (as tends to happen to bitter, evil Romulans) & the red matter took hold as Nero could not find a bright side to his situation. Aftermarket folks don’t have to focus on naysayers out there. A dark outlook is the red matter we will get if we’re not making the best use of positive marketing practices every day. My red matter says “Live long & PROSPER”……………Tommy