When Henry Heinz got started, people didn’t buy horseradish or relish or pickles or other preserved foods in stores. They made them at home. And they were skeptical about any preserved food made anywhere else.

There was good reason for that distrust. Much commercial preserved food was awful. Some was even poisonous.

That gave Henry Heinz two challenges. He had to make preserved foods, like horseradish, that were good enough to buy, even when people could make it themselves. And he had to sell his foods to people who didn’t trust food made outside their own kitchen.

He met the first challenge in the obvious way. He made excellent products, better than most people made at home.

Then he changed the packaging to clear glass. Every other manufacturer at the time used either cans or colored glass for their products. Heinz thought that clear glass would show customers his quality and show them he had nothing to hide.

Heinz knew something that was true selling pickles in the 1850s and is still true today in the job market. To succeed you need to offer something of quality, but you also have to look the part.

The magic word here is “verisimilitude.” I first learned it from Herschell Gordon Lewis.

Lewis is famous for two things. In the world of violent horror films he is “The Godfather of Gore,” as producer of Blood Feast and other “splatter movies.” In another world, he has written some of the very best books on how to write advertising copy.

In a book of his that I read long ago, Lewis defined “verisimilitude” as “not just truth, but the appearance of truth, too.” That’s what you need in the job hunt.

Whether you’re looking for a job or an internal development assignment, you need to pick your spots. Pick the ones where you have the “quality goods” that make you attractive.

But you also have to look and act the part. You need to look and act like you’ve already got the job or the assignment.

You need to have the quality, like Henry Heinz’ horseradish. And you need to present yourself so the quality is obvious.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 11:47 am and is filed under Tools and Strategies for Success. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.