Let’s say you’re a yoga instructor and you want to create a video about one of your ideas to help people be happier and more relaxed. Finding a way to market this new service in a way that’s unique and remarkable would be a sound strategy. BUT, what if you created a video that was sooooo over the top, it became viral due to it’s silliness.
At the signpost up ahead, it’s the laughing yoga guy…
Are you an online shopaholic? My wife and I estimate that 1/3 to 1/2 of all our retail purchases are conducted online. Our primary motivations are, in order:
But, what if a site is slow to load? We’re OUTTA there! A study from Jupiter Research identifies the new standard of download speed is FOUR seconds! The study shows that, for most people, this is the second most important criteria after price.
Imagine having to wrestle your alarm clock in the morning to prove you’re awake. If I had one of those in 1981, I would have missed FAR FEWER BioChem classes in college! Well, a student at MIT made such a device. I didn’t say design one … I said made one.
Neil Gershenfeld, the director for the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT has been on the leading edge of a manufacturing revolution. One where you and I (or, more likely, our kids) will be able to manufacture just about anything they want as simply as pushing the print button on their computer. Using nanobeam laser writers and supersonic waterjet cutters, the Center’s lab can crank out itsy-bitsy things like semiconductors to large scale objects …€” like buildings …€” all without having to send off plans to an overseas manufacturing plant. This isn’t just another MIT geek-fest. There are 15 such labs around the globe. In Ghana, an 8 year old girl made a working circuit board. In Norway, a 14 year old boy created a robot car. This movement is just starting to roll.
Talk about an individual’s ability to control their needs, ideas and their world! It’s like Moore’s law being applied to manufacturing.
The SEC is considering whether a blog post actually counts as an appropriate medium for “Regulation Fair Disclosure.” The inquiry, posed by Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s web log, begs that a blog post does, indeed, satisfy the requirement of “widespread dissemination”. Although it may take a year or two, I’m sure even the guys at the SEC will be able to figure out that the Internet is actually viewed by more than a handful of people!
The book Hot Button Marketing by Barry Feig, lists the number one hot button as the need to control one’s life.
What if I wanted to make my hair blue? … zip, aqua locks! Or, What if I wanted to take off 50 pounds in an instant? … poof, Oprah in a microsecond! Maybe, today, I’d like to be a nine foot tall Amazonian Princess with a nose ring and body tattoos …. OK, toooo far! How is this all possible? Check out any of the Role Playing Games (RPGs) your kids are playing online. Some examples: World of Warcraft, Runescape, Guildwars, Virtual magic Kingdom, Ragnarok Online, Second Life, etc.
Isn’t it obvious what’s going on here? Players can control EVERY aspect of their virtual life, even if they have very little control over their “real” life. Mr. Feig is right on with his Control Hot Button assessment … especially with the youth demographic.
Take the opportunity to give your customers more control in the buying process to see what impact it has on your bottom line.
Take a guess how much Staples Office Supply has made by selling their “easy buttons” …. $100K? …. $400K? …. a Mil? How ’bout $7.5 Million and going strong?!
It seems that a current trend in extending brand is the tight integration of this type of tchotchke into advertising and all forms of brand reinforcement. The Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association estimates that this is a ONE BILLION dollar market. Other examples: Travelocity’s gnome, Taco Bell’s chihuahua, Burger King’s King mask, California Raisins and Pets.com’s Sock Puppet.
So, who’s up for buying a rubber squirrel??? 
If you haven’t yet dug Digg, you can start with this excellent Digg tutorial on what it’s all about.
Pull out your last flyer, brochure, web page … your last marketing piece. Take a good look at it and tell me if you’re marketing to your target audience as they are now. Or, are you targeting your message to who your audience wants to be in the future?! The difference can be one of boring “whatever” messaging or “emotionally engaging, aspiration” messaging. Here’s the difference:
Each of these reflects on the difference between current mediocrity and the power of what the future holds. Orient your marketing to the latter and you’ve really got something.
I get why companies use autoresponders (press #1 for sales … press #2 for accounting … etc.). They can make communication and call routing more efficient, and can reduce the labor required (read “reduced payroll”) to manage incoming calls.
But what about those insanely complex, multi-tiered, non-intuitive systems that make you feel like you’ve been thrown into autresponder purgatory?! How do you explain the huge amount of time and energy it takes to keep the “Get Human 500” database current? Yes, people are willing to endure a simple and intuitive autoresponder system, BUT if you’ve made it to the Get Human list, you’ve clearly missed the boat and your brand is taking a huge broadside hit!
People will do just about anything to not be annoyed and to ask a real live person a real live question … hoping to get a real live answer. I know I’m kinda funny that way!
Here’s an article from a 1950s Popular Mechanics Magazine entitled “Miracles You’ll See In The Next Fifty Years“. Some creepy, spot-on predictions:
However, there are some pretty bizarre predictions as well:
I have to wonder how I would fare in trying to accurately describe life in 2057. Typing into my “shop by picture phone” in November 2006, I just want to know where I can buy a $5000 house! They can keep the underwear candy.
