Archive for the ‘Message’ Category
Who doesn’t love a little red sports car?
I recall how my ‘favorite car’ was exactly that — a 1987 red Toyota MR2 . . . OMG I loved that car. But, I digress . . .
“It’s a chick-magnet”
That’s how the salesperson (a woman no less!) described it to me. Maybe she thought I was having a mid-life crisis and a ‘little red sports car’ was exactly what I needed. Regardless, I bought that car for my own enjoyment and boy, did I love that car.
And truth be told, that’s what most people understand a ‘hot-looking’ car is going to do for the owner. Of course, truth and fantasy blur easily and rarely does the latter influence the former. But that’s what most people still believe a ‘little red sports car’ will do for the driver.
What Does a ‘Little Red Sportscar’ has to do with ‘standing out’
One part (1/3, actually) of your marketing strategy is to ‘differentiate’ your self, business, products and services from the ‘alternatives’ your prospective client may consider, right? So how do you do that?
Leverage a Common Perception with An Uncommon Twist
Al Ries ad Jak Trout wrote a book called, “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind“. In it, they suggest adopting “a competitive mental angle”. That simply means you assume your prospect is aware of who your competition is and you use what people associate about them . . . to your advantage.
For example:
What if you wanted to promote your mini-van? It’s no little red sportscar, right? EXACTLY!
That’s why the common understanding of what a ‘little red sportscar’ is all about makes it ideal to use to make your reader relate to what your benefit really is:
” . . . BETTER at picking up women than an exotic and expensive sportscar!”
KEY POINT:
Differentiation is never done in a vacuum — always use a context your reader already understands and THEN . . . add an ‘angle’ . . . to make your benefit ‘stand out’ in their mind.
Occasionally, far too rarely actually, I come across a truly brilliant marketing campaign that benefits not only the marketer but everyone else involved.
Enter . . . the Fourth Annual Holiday Feed It Forward™ campaign of Restaurant.com:
Here’s the Deal . . .
Each year around the holidays, Restaurant.com enables anyone to ‘give away’ $10 Gift Certificates to anyone they like . . . as a gift . . . absolutely FREE!
How / Why It Works . . .
Restaurant.com is a firm that helps roughly 18,000 restaurants generate customers. It does this by allowing people like you and me to buy its ‘gift certificates’ at a discount and these 18,000 restaurants honor the ‘face’ value of each certificate. The restaurants get more traffic, consumers get a good value (and, hopefully a good meal) and Restaurant.com gets a nominal fee for each transaction
That’s smart. Afterall, each participating restaurant only incurs a ‘cost’ of sales (the discount and fee) when this promotional tactic actually pays off. I love anything that changes the ‘pay now and pray later’ marketing media into one you only need to pay for when it actually works! That’s what Restaurant.com does — very nicely.
The 2012 Restaurant.com Holiday Gift-Away . . .
For the last four years, to help all the parties in the equation — restaurants and consumers — Cary Chessik, CEO of Restaurants.com has allowed anyone to give a ‘gift’ of $10 to people they know as a simple act of ‘feeding it forward’.
This is altruism and commercialism as it helps Cary’s restaurant clients by putting ‘butts in the seats’ for them. At the same time, it provides people like you and me with an opportunity to say, “Thanks” to many people in our lives in what may find this is a time that’s more financially difficult for more people than we may ever know.
It’s 100% legit — I’ve used this myself already — and I hope you would use this opportunity to give a $10 Gift Card to up to 40 people each day between now and Christmas.
KEY POINT:
Marketing makes a difference in the lives of people by connecting us all. Use this ‘Feed It Forward’ opportunity to do the same with people in your world . . . all you’ll feel is good . . . and appreciated!
