Bare with me, this does speak about marketing/client management.
If you’ve been watching Game of Thrones to the end of the final season, you’d seen a Game of queens unfold in front of your eyes. Spoiler alert and all that crap.
So, while (hurray for gender equality) one queen does get on a throne by claiming her own kingdom (Sansa of the North), we basically have two queens fighting to the death and getting both killed -Cersei and Daenerys.
Where am I getting at? In both cases, we see followers of said queens go to extra-extreme lengths for their rulers, even betraying their penultimate or last ruler (but we know loyalties are shapeshiftin’ in GoT). Even after said queen is no longer breathing. Think of the Imp talking Jon Snow/Targaryen into killing his queen (and lover! and aunt…) – in part to avenge his queen sister (ok, and brother). Think of Greyworm not being happy until Jon’s exile north of the North.
Typical “Queen Avenging Syndrome” (QAS).
Doing anything for your “queen” (be it your client or customer for instance), even when they’re gone (e.g. not your client anymore, I don’t mean dead litteraly), that is, here and there, your definition of the “Queen Avenging Syndrom”.
Where does that “queen avenging syndrom” comes from in the first place? Well, I better come clean: I got that combination of words from the Adage agency name generator and felt it was way too good to be discarded – while totally impractical as an agency name, let’s be honest.
That’s when I started picturing people going to war with some “Braveheart” speech and gimmicks, and of course, GoT popped to mind. Yes, I admit I’m trying to make a case for the QAS just because I found the name cool. And I’m not ashamed that I’m trying to retrofit some coherent definition to back it up. The thing has appeal.
Come on! You have to agree that something around the lines of “You killed my queen! You’ll pay for that. Even if I have to spend my life chasing you, etc.” sounds like a pretty awesome quest / synopsis for a GoT sequel.
Now, the 10,000 dollar question, aka the Iron Throne question, is: are you suffering from Queen Avenging Syndrom? Are you pursuing quests because of a client, employee or partner you’ve lost?
I’ve seen it happen in agencies: “because we lost Such & Such, we need to win them back” OR “because we lost Such & Such, we need an account exactly like it.” Nope you don’t! You, pal are suffering from QAS. It’s lost, get over it. New opportunities, quests and queens await. And in the word of 60’s ad prodigy George Lois: “Don’t get revenge. Get even.”
So, any queen you’re trying to avenge that you should get over?
