Make sure you have attentive ears before you go buy batteries for your product’s or service’s megaphone.
If you’re making music, we’ll stop and listen. If you’re making noise, we’ll simply Tivo through you.
Ashton.Gustafson
Pause by the orchid. Listen to the bluebird sing. Be love.
Category Archives: Marketing
What’s the Deal?
Depends on who you’re asking?
If you’re Amazon, the deal is the rowdiest bookstore on the planet. And, shop with us a lot and we’ll bring it to your doorstep for free. Oh, and no tax…yet.
If you’re the Alabama Crimson Tide, the deal is we don’t lose much.
If you’re Facebook, the deal is look WHO is doing WHAT.
If you’re TOMs Shoes, the deal is buy one give one.
Whatever your deal is, today, it must be sharable, text-able, email-able, remarkable.
And please take time developing your deal. We can spy junk mail and mass texts deals from a mile away.
Your deal allows the recruit to commit and the customer to click.
Unexpected
Let’s chat about the unexpected – in the good sense of the word.
Like when I ordered the wrong dish at my favorite restaurant. They brought me what I ordered, but it was not what I had traveled 1000 miles to have. Their response? A tasting tray of the finest dishes they offered, a bottle of champagne, and the dish that I was originally hoping for – all on the house. Unexpected.
Zappos loves this concept. My wife wanted to exchange her shoes I got her for Christmas. With one call they shipped the new shoes without having the other ones sent back yet. Unexpected. 48 hours later my wife had happy feet.
Or the delivery of just because flowers. Unexpected – and the petals always seem to convey what our words can’t.
The unexpected finds us speechless in the moment, but leads to us not being able to keep our mouths shut about the story that unfolded.
Mastery of the unexpected will build your followers quicker than anything else you can pursue.
The Vacuum Battle Royal
It probably should not be classified as battle, but I eavesdropped on three wives (one of which was mine) having a “who knows the best vacuum” debate this weekend.
It went like this…
Wife 2: “I really want a __________ (brand name) vacuum.”
Wife 1: “Oh, I was going to ask for that brand for Christmas, but was told by soooo many people not to.”
Wife 3: “Well, if my vacuum didn’t have a chord, I would vacuum everyday!”
Wife 1: “You should see my chord. Press a button, and the chord winds itself back into the vacuum.”
Wife 3: “No way.”
Wife 1: “Way.”
And for five more minutes they had their vacuum debate…
Welcome to our new business ecosystem.
The goal in this new ecosystem is to be the last brand standing or Best In Class for your product or service when three wives strike up their battle royal.
The three wives care more about each other’s opinions than any direct mailer, infomercial, tweet, or even a Super Bowl ad. Said another way, it’s all about the social boat we sail on, and we hate to rock the boat.
This should make us all question our marketing dollars.
Never once did they mention how well the vacuum sucked. That’s the reason for a vacuum debate, right? Not so much. Best In Class, here, was all about functionality, noise levels, and chord winder-uppers.
This proves the Simon Sinek belief when he says, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
What Style Can Do
About a month ago I posted an entry on style, and how it does not win championships for teams or in itself make a businesses successful. This remains true.
But today, we get to see that style does have its role….buzz creation…i.e., awareness.
10 years ago no one cared about the University of Oregon. Now, they are getting some of the best recruits from all over the country and are consistently ranked in the top 10. From half a world away, 18 year old boys are leaving Texas, Alabama, Florida, and so on to move to the Pacific Northwest and play on the gridiron.
Remember last years’s National Championship? Texts and tweets filled our phones with talk about the neon green cleats the Ducks were wearing. I was privileged to be at the game. It looked like their feet were wrapped in tennis ball fuzz. I now own 2 Oregon shirts, my wife has an Oregon shirt, and today I’m flying an Oregon flag outside of my home in Texas. Look at what neon green cleats started.
Today’s matchup of Oregon and Wisconsin could not be more Mac vs. PC., and it will be very easy to see who owns the style points when the teams hit the field. Oregon is reportedly wearing silver cleats and black chrome helmets.
There will be future University of Oregon players watching the current talent in today’s Rose Bowl. And no matter who wins, the future players will go to bed and dream of one day wearing silver cleats and black chrome helmets.
What can style do?
- Put you on the map.
- Get people talking.
- Bring talent your way.
- Create buzz.
And today the buzz is a black chrome helmet.
Ashton.Gustafson 