(This is the second article of a three-part series.)
Bob's been holding his breath since the last installment to find out just what to do next. Of course, he passed out a long time ago. He just didn't realize it was time to take that next step on his own. Do your programs pass out over time? Read on to get some great ideas about reviving your energy, success and blood flow.
High-Return, Low-Risk Ways to Get the Edge
Now that you're ready for a workout, let's explore what's out on the “edge.” Imagine that your conference room whiteboard has been completely wiped clean. Make sure those ghost images that sometimes cling to the plastic disappear before you start this exercise. In fact, move that white board out to the beach for a new perspective.
Forget any preconceived notions about what we're going to say, even after we say it. Take it in, let it bubble around in your brain for a day, then adapt elements to your situation. Here we go.
Develop Your Tone
Use a tone that stands out and gets your point across. Like this article, it is direct. It has short sentences and bursts of information that keep your attention. It shakes things up a little from the usual dry, marketing white paper. Use words beyond “new and improved” to get noticed. Most of us have a “usual vocabulary.” Find your way out of the status quo.
All aspects of your edge marketing programs must incorporate the tone you set for the particular strategy from beginning to end. For example, from the direct mail invitation to an event, to the email campaigns about the event, to the event itself, it needs continuity.
A little controversy and lots of play go a long way. Move out into the fringe with your ideas. Be conspicuous amid the homogenous sea. Edge marketing is the strategizing superhero that transforms marketing and sales programs into miracle makers instead of a money suckers.
Think like an artist or musician. Look at a picture of a field and notice how the artist combined that dirt, grass and trees in a way that makes you think. Or how two musicians can interpret and arrange the same song to produce completely different moods, feelings and responses. Translate those variations to tone with edge.
With Edge Without Edge
99 cent Only Stores BMW
Virgin Air Microsoft
Jet Blue McDonalds
Cheese Board Levi's
Got Milk? Fruit of the Loom
Ikea Calvin Klein
Clover Stornetta IBM
Orbit (gum) Enterprise
VW United
These new strategies require a new attitude. Concentrate on your consumer audience and initiate a reaction from them. An aha, yuk or yippee. Get them reacting. Remember when you couldn't even pronounce Fahrvergnьgen much less buy a VW? That's what we mean.
Controversy is good. Have an opinion. We're not talking about toilet humor in your campaign or going completely off the edge with some outlandish sock puppet. Create a hullabaloo by propelling your marketing program from mediocre to mega-productive. Edge marketing helps you get a better return through one-to-one relationships with the right customers. You aren't all things to all people, so talk to the right people in their language.
Activate Your Customers
Take your product to the consumer. Put it in their hands. Let them buy it—right then and there. We're activating consumers into action, not building their wish list.
Display products in an environment they understand. Engage consumers. High-return, low risk methods turn a usual activity into an edge event. Take products where they're unexpected yet still matched to a prime buying community.
Feature high-tech or innovative products at established local events like home and garden shows, wedding events, in baseball stadiums and seasonal events, or truck-it to them! Make sure that where you go, your customer can buy.
Find events where potential customers are in a mood to spend. That's right, spend. There are many opportunities to match your offering to an environment that promotes impulse purchases. Or, it gets them when they're just prime to go over the edge to buy that digital camera, online money management service or portable TV that they've been thinking about.
The experts agree. The guys at Technology Channels Group, Inc. say, “Vendors that try and maintain their rigid distribution structures will certainly lose market share to those vendors that are willing to experiment with new ways to reach and satisfy customers.”
So, what does the anatomy of a direct-to-consumer edge event look like?
- Locate at unexpected and highly qualified events (e.g., home and garden, wedding, sports shows).
- Structure offers to match product profile with buyers.
- Participate in turnkey programs that demo and sell products plus track results.
- Use contract staffing—no in-house personnel needed.
- Make it regional in nature.
- Invite synergistic product vendors to participate.
- Place all orders direct through participating vendors' e-commerce sites or preferred delivery channel.
- Look for low-cost management fees, high-return sell-through opportunities.
Use your noodle and come up venues and ideas you haven't thought of before. Here are some examples to get your juices flowing:
- Sporting events: Merchandise portable, wireless TVs for rent and purchase in the stadium.
- Home shows: Set up a live baby cam and display it on a huge screen. It's the goo-goo factor!
- Garden shows: Partner digital cameras, application software and gardening photography in the same location.
- Wedding events: Promote a long distance telephone service for staying in touch.
- Festivals: Demonstrate the latest in digital photo applications, then email a picture off to the family.
- Fund raisers: Market a catalog of products through organizations seeking to raise funds.
- Truck-it to them: Partner with a suite of complimentary solutions and take the show on the road!
Break out of the branding-only events. Leverage other vendors with the same vision. Share the space, expenses, even the sales staff. Demonstrate products to show your customers how they'll get the edge using your products. Feel free to change and customize. Test your way to success.
Next week: communicate complexity simply; being safe can make you sorry; ask for something—give value in return.
