Cool Marketing Thoughts

It’s a fact that if you are a marketeer, a lot depends on how well you can wrap up your message to sell your product. Presentation is everything. The way you propose your product, supported by testimonials and based on facts that have been broadcasted on international TV stations will definitely determine the success of a product. Word of mouth will also help you out a bit, because nowadays, people very often rely on the statements their peers make before they decide to purchase a product. The perfect illustration of a great marketing stunt is the (most likely photoshopped) product below. Needless to say, this is so much more than the bare product could ever be. This carries a story, and stories sell. Even when this is a fake, it points out exactly what marketing is all about. You can make people want something, and they’ll be happy to pay a little more for it, as long as you succeed in wrapping it up nicely before you deliver.

Lesson learned.

Too bad I totally missed this… “From leading architect David Rockwell to leading creative Alex Bogusky; from the man who built Second Life to the marketing chief of the very-real-world Starbucks; from a guy who plans and buys media to a guy who expresses himself by making toys. They all came to share their big ideas and pass on their tips for fostering creativity.” And so, here’s a list of 19 items, all of them are pointers and ‘good to know’ thingies. If you want to know the extra words of context, click here.

• Limitations and small budgets are inspiring
• Trust your gut—not research
• Think like a band
• Approach your consumer from a ‘molecular level’
• Digitize everything
• Nostalgia is death
• Let consumers inside
• Prototype early
• Drugs won’t supply your ‘Aha!’ moment
• Flatten management structure
• Market to the interested
• Go for a brand back rub
• Give consumers some control
• Turn Advertising Week into a charity push
• Discourage sleep
• Don’t be (obviously) big, be brilliant
• Sit under the table
• Every day should be independence day
• All creatives are created equal

Read more on AdCritic, have a laugh with the pictures and see some video footage of Alex Bogusky, Philip Rosedale and David Jones.
Kudos to Appelogen for pointing me to this page.

Smuggling out corporate secrets isn’t one of my hobbies, but I’ve stolen these words at These Days. The text is printed out and hangs next to the main entrance. Originally it was in Dutch, so I had to juggle a bit to find the right words. I’ve forgotten who the original author is so I can’t really credit anyone. I haven’t invented the words below, but that doesn’t make them less important. It’s true, and I’ll keep this in mind forever. So should you.

Don’t focus on ‘all’ youngsters. Think of some, define a selected target group.
- Limit the use of words and images. Less often is more.

Look them straight in the eyes, don’t yield – don’t blink.
- Give them exactly what they expect in an exclusive atmosphere.

Forget about ‘good taste’, forget about ‘bad taste’. It’s time for MyTaste!
- Seduce them with what they know, surprise them with knowledge.

Put them in the driver’s seat, put them in control.
- Be generous with discounts and communicate about them time and again.

Find exciting links/relations with the youngster’s network.
- Select & program well thought-out, smart & sensible.
- Your errors will not be forgotten.

Experiment with hours.
- Everything is sexy around midnight.
- Launch a date-site, not a data-site.
- One third (1/3) of your budget should go to web promotion.

Claim space on television.
- Test every action & communication method. Then test it again.

Don’t use the names of sub-cultures. You’ll make yourself ridiculous.
- Make sure you have an inventive media mix to play with.
- A website replaces flyers and posters.

Don’t Spam. Not with emails, not with SMS (mobile text messages).
- Invite youngsters to contact you.
- Target the upper section of your audience.
e.g. : ‘I might be 16, but I’d love to be 18′.

Send out a letter through snailmail.
- You often achieve more with less culturally calibrated media.

Stay away from the youngster’s jargon. You’ll make yourself suspicious.
- Switch angles. Turn pages. Start new things.
- Abandon old things at least once a day.

Love, don’t cherish.

When I go shopping, I always think I’m in control. After all, I studied marketing. I work at a cool agency and I think of things that will engage customers and make ‘m buy stuff. I used to think that me, of all people, would know what’s going on and that I would be able to see the obvious tricks out there. I buy what I want, where I want it. If I’m being pushed subconsciously to buy something, most of the time I’m aware of it, but sometimes I just think: “ah, what the hell.” Until I read this list about architectural tricks to control consumers. Going through the list I often caught myself thinking I’d fall for it or even that I wouldn’t notice it. Marketing is so much more than I realised. I’m being played. And not just a bit. Tune in on a few tricks from the list, then check it out. You’ll be surprized. (You’ll also recognize a few, which makes you feel a bit like ‘hah! I’m on to you marketeers’, and that’s comforting.)

• Some customers, particularly men, tend to simply shop for what they want, walking down an aisle grabbing what they want, turning back and walking the way they came, this is called the ‘Boomerang Effect’. In order to maximize shopper and produce contact time, shops therefore place major items and brands in the middle of aisles ensuring that from any direction the customer has to walk the furthest to reach them.
• Some UK baby shops now add Baby Powder to the air conditioning to remind people of new-born’s and relax them.
• Most Supermarkets bake their bread early in the morning, however to entice more custom some have resorted to pumping out the smell of fresh baking bread to add to the illusion that it is constantly baked through the day. Go into Niketown on Oxford Street and smell the deodorant like pong they pump into the air!
• Apparently the colour Light Purple is most likely to make customers feel lilke spending money!
• Supermarkets used to have a trick placing slightly smaller tiles on the floor in the more expensive aisles of the shop. When a customer entered on of these aisles their trolley would click faster making them think they were travelling faster and thereby subconsciously slow down and spend more time in that aisle.

Read the rest of the list | via Bright