Possum

The Tale of the Jazz Possum

Yes, we do know the name of the marsupial is properly spelled "Opossum" not "Possum." The altered spelling is by design and not a typo.

Why did we do it? Hey, if you're reading this, it's because you're curious to learn the answer. In a nutshell: "We made you look." Something simple commanded your attention. That's a marketing lesson unto itself.

In reality, the spelling is a transliteration of the proper pronunciation of our company name. Jazz Possum is spoken as a three-syllable compound word, with the "P" rolling immediately off the "Z". Visually, "Jazz Opossum," at first glance, doesn't look like it really sounds. There is that subtle temptation to initially think it says, "Jazz O-Possum," as though there were four syllables, then remembering a moment later that the "O" is silent. So it's an "engineered colloquialism or slang." And that's another marketing lesson -- yes, we think about those things at that level and beyond.

Now the whole concept of the "Jazz Possum" came from a real-life encounter with one. Two of our principals, a husband and wife, when living in a suburb of Dallas, TX, many years ago, after a long hard day at work, used to enjoy late evenings on their deck sitting in their hot tub, relaxing and unwinding, sipping an ice-cold beverage, and listening to the soothing strains and melodies of the Jazz music station on their radio. At the rear corner of their backyard, just over their wooden privacy fence, stood a storage shed in the adjacent back corner of their next door neighbor's yard.

One evening from on top of the shed a small white face emerged from the shadows, peeking over the fence, illuminated slightly in the reflected light coming from the deck. It clearly was a "critter" of some sort. It was bigger than a rat or squirrel, had a snout much longer than that of a cat, didn't have a raccoon's bandit mask, and it was doubtful that armadillos could climb on top of a shed.

Opossums were indigenous to the area, and so the animal's identity was soon deduced. But somewhat surprisingly, he didn't run away at the sight of humans, but was content to sit there staring for as long as the music was playing. If the music were turned off, or even changed to a different station, he would leave. And for a good many months, each night when the Jazz was turned on, he would return to his place on top of the neighbor's shed to apparently enjoy the music, too.

Ergo, he was dubbed the "Jazz Possum."

And later the phrase was deemed to be unique and catchy enough to be used for the name of a company (or perhaps a bar or nightclub). It's always conceptually represented the notion of the tangible fruits of life to be enjoyed as a result of successful sales and marketing -- exemplified by sitting on a beautiful deck, in a hot tub, sipping champagne, and listening to fine Jazz. That's where the Jazz Possum hangs out. Indeed, to the winners go the spoils.

Getting to the next level in your business may be the very thing you need to open the doors to all of your own professional and personal goals, aspirations, and the quality of life you've dreamed of achieving.

Let JPE help you get there.

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"I've never seen results like this before. The email-based prospect qualification campaign JPE did for us went out to thousands of CIOs and top IT decision makers. The response rate was over 6%, not less than 1%. We now have hundreds of well-qualified leads to work with. We know their pain points, and they're teed up to talk to us. And that's just the beginning of many campaigns planned with JPE."

VP of Sales

Global Software

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