Know Your Market – Dress Like A Beer Bottle?
As a bit of a marketing geek, I tend to look at virtually everything I see in terms of how well that person brand or organisation is getting their message across.
In fact I do it so much that I can see people eyes glazing over when I start banging on about message to market match etc, especially those of my long suffering wife, Rachel.
A Smile A Day…
However from time to time I come across pieces of marketing and promotion that I think are clever and above all make me smile. After all it I am smiling, then my defences are down and I am more likely to buy, right?
I saw something really funny when I was walking out of Fenchurch Street station one day last week. As you come out of the main station entrance, you are always greeted by a variety of free newspaper distributors, leaflet people and charity collectors all appealing for your attention.
So to stand out from the crowd here really is something.
This business was a gents hairdressers, and they were giving out leaflets in the shape of folded five pound notes, so that when you took the leaflet it looked like money.
I will upload a picture as soon as I can!
Cold Beer and Sex?
When you opened the leaflet up, it had the words “cold beer” and “sex” in larger bold text, picked out of a sentence which read “We will give you a cold beer, and you can have a hair cut which may give you sex appeal”
The people handing out the leaflets were dressed as giant green beer bottles, and certainly caught my attention enough to persuade me to take a leaflet.
Pricewise, they were competitive with other City barbers, unless you choose to go to a more expensive salon of course.
This barber really knows its typical customer, which you would guess is younger men in the City who would appreciate the chance to have a cold beer when they visit the barber.
A sense of Humour Helps
Also they showed ingenuity with the leaflet design and a sense of humour with the costumes. Overall a big tick in the box from me! Normally I get my hair cut locally but I think I might have to go to this place now, just so I can ask the owner how many more sales they get through this method.
What can you do to make yourself stand out from the crowd? Maybe you don’t have to dress as a giant beer bottle to differentiate yourself, but perhaps something else might work?
Remember if you just copy someone else, even if it is the market leader, then the only way people can differentiate between you is price. Do you really want every conversation with a potential customer to come down to just price?
I thought not.
So Be Different
There are so many ways to be different. Offer a free trial, do a special promotion, run a QR code campaign, send a press release to the local paper, promote via Twitter or Facebook, print some leaflets, cut your prices, increase your prices.
There are just eight ways to be different right away, so there is plenty to be thinking about for now.
Tell Me What You Think?
Leave me a comment below and tell me about your experiences, and for help making the most of your differences to connect with your market, get in touch with me at smile@abcmultimedia.co.uk and let’s talk about making it work for you.
