The real trick to marketing is to reinvent the norm. We all recognize normal — it’s boring, expected, mundane, average, and status quo.
We see the reinvention of the norm through marketing time and time again.
Marketing (and branding) is an endless game of seduction.
Our marketing should be so fascinating that it draws people in and engages them. It should break the monotony, inspire, entertain, and solve a problem.
It doesn’t matter how boring, mundane, or uninteresting your business is, there is a way to overlay something compelling, to do the unexpected in a way that creates magic. The result will be reinventing what would otherwise be average.
Jon Rogers, founder of Rogers Family Coffee said, “Coffee’s been grown and processed and roasted the same forever. The wine industry has billions of books on how to make wine. Coffee has two. We are hundreds of years behind the wine industry, beer industry, or other food industries. So we are taking it upon ourselves to change that. We want to improve the industry. We have learned that we have to do it ourselves. We have to be the innovators. The lightbulb in our head says, What else could we change? What else is out there?”
Candace Nelson, founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes said, “I conceived the idea of an automatic cupcake machine after having late-night sugar cravings while pregnant with my second son.” She said, “I couldn’t get my midnight cupcake fix. I thought ‘there has to be a way’ and so the concept of the Sprinkles Cupcake ATM was born.”
Tom Dickson, founder of BlendTec and the star of the YouTube sensation, Will It Blend had an idea. He wanted to show the power behind his product line of BlendTec blenders. His idea was to do a blending experiment with a box of matches. This crazy idea took off immediately on YouTube and began a marketing campaign of off-the-wall short videos that has amassed over 27,000,000 views on YouTube. BlendTec, once an obscure and unnoticed brand, is now a leading producer of blenders in the world due to one crazy idea.
Create an excited anticipation for something more, something people believe will add value to their life, bring an unexpected smile to their face, and solve a problem that they have. Get people so captivated by your idea that they desire to dig deeper, beyond scratching the surface and engage your message with enthusiasm — and become a fan. Help people get off the well-worn path of business as usual and move them towards your idea.
[…] that’s why your business is drying up. We buy a relationship. We buy stories that engage and entertain us. We buy experiences. We buy from people we […]