Becoming a Leader of the Business Pack

Marketing creativity can lift your business endeavors up! Will you dare to experiment?

Hello folks! It is about time I delivered our weekly crunchy marketing snack! So here I am, fully-prepared for yet another marketing adventure. Today, however, our marketing and communications menu is going to be a bit more experimental. That’s right, I am going to open the can of creativity and try to explain why being a bit more avant-garde can really help your business succeed and stand out from the crowd of competitors. Before I do that, I need to issue a word of caution to potential daredevils. This article is only for the brave ones and there is no guarantee that applying the pieces of advice I am sharing will work as expected. Nonetheless, marketing, just like everything else, is a matter of experimentation. In case the strategy does not work as planned, you can find out what went wrong, draw the relevant conclusions, and discard it or implement it better next time. So, without further ado, let’s get busy.

Some time ago, I was listening to a Hubspot webinar, conducted by David Meerman Scott. At a certain point, he started arguing that companies should not emulate their industry rivals, because they would end up being exactly like them, and not a notch better. Indeed, he virtually reiterated one of the postulates enshrined in a famous work, entitled Blue Ocean Strategy. According to that book, companies that break through and capture uncultivated and uncontested markets, are companies that dare. In a nutshell, those are the innovative, creative, and brave companies that are willing to risk it and challenge the industrial status quo. They are not afraid to be shake the foundations and they have the audacity to get creative. At the time, some of those companies included Ford, Dell, Apple, etc. Today, they are industrial behemoths. Consequently, the bottom line is that your business should break the spell of industrial uniformity in order to make it. Whereas there are multiple elements such as a solid competitive advantage, customization, great branding, mastery and extensive use of social media, intimate knowledge and understanding of your customers or even great looks that can drive your business forward, you should always place them in the dynamic marketing context. One such approach, according to David Meerman Scott’s reflections, is to be very open-minded and to observe what companies, which operate in industries different from yours, do. For example, if you are in the real estate business, you might want to check what people in the auctioning industry do to attract attention to their products and generate profit. Find out what the lady in the local bakery does to keep the flow of regular customers and attract new ones. Explore the marketing trends in the car industry, you might get inspired by some of their campaigns or business models. In fact, the more open to new ideas you are, the better. Some of these unorthodox approaches to marketing might just offer the right promotional recipe for you.

Our company for one, looks up to rock stars for marketing inspiration. Our rationale is simple: we do not want to be yet another software and marketing communications company. We want to be an enterprise that engages clients, delivers great products and services, and leaves the crowd longing for more, which could be basically interpreted as building long-term relationships with our clients. Having stated that, I want to point out that you do need to observe your competitors closely, otherwise you will get in real trouble. Yet, do not be afraid to be different from them as far as your marketing efforts are concerned. You should lead, not follow, as at the end of the day, the winner takes it all (or most of it). Thus, do position yourself differently and act in accordance with the brand you are aiming to build and expand. Observe other industries, examine their marketing tactics carefully, and select the ones that might work for your business. Then, open the can of creativity and insert those marketing grafts into the bloodstream of your business activities. Check out the shows of Roger Waters or U2, for example. Examine the amazing things they are doing by using bleeding edge technology to deliver a memorable experience. They have gone beyond the traditional use of pyrotechnics and they have mastered the art of delivering show-topping performances, which are recognized for their out of this world characteristics. Therefore, you can always learn a trick or two from them. After all, a distinct marketing flavor can do miracles for your commercial ventures!

The most brilliant example of such marketing comes from the movie studios in Turkey. Some time ago, the Turkish soap operas became extremely popular in the Balkans. Indeed, the brainchildren of the Turkish media industry virtually ousted their Latin American competitors from this region in Europe. According to various magazines, some of them are aired in prime time and they have a very solid fan base. Yet, this is not the story I want to tell you. Instead, I want to share with you a great example of unconventional marketing. I really do not know whether it is a fluke or a product of a Turkish marketing genius. At the end of the day, it really does not matter, as it is a spectacular lesson in creative marketing.

A year ago, I came across a brochure that was urging people to go on holiday in Turkey. Yet, what caught my eye was not the hotels or the palatable-looking food, but some quite unusual tourist attractions such as locations where some soaps were filmed. Initially, I did not understand what it was all about. I thought this did not make any sense and I wondered who in his right mind would advertise such locations as important tourist sites. Moreover, why should people care about them? Yet, my innate curiosity kept gnawing me and I decided to do some research and dig deeper into this Hollywood-like phenomenon. My findings left me speechless. Apparently, soap operas are no longer just cultural exports. They are a great way to promote your tourist industry and secure new investments. This is exactly what happened in the case of the Turkish soaps. Since they were distributed mainly in the neighboring countries and the Middle East, the regional proximity factor played a very important role. People could go to Turkey in just a few hours, visit all those exotic, yet nearby locations, where a scene of their favorite soap was filmed, have a romantic dinner at the Bosphorus, near the house of their favorite actors, and then go back home and tell the tale to friends and relatives. Wow! This out-of-the-box creative marketing really blew my mind. I do not know whether this was initially planned and deliberately sought for, but the effect was overwhelming. What a way to secure a double win! Of course, the budget that the makers of those soaps have is not the budget that a small company has. Nonetheless, the blurring of industry borders and the opportunity that the tour operators seized is a paragon of cross-promotion and creativity.

Just remember that creative marketing does not have to entail a lot of expenses. It can be done with a small budget, confidence in your abilities, and desire to experiment and move forward. Be as open-minded as possible, exploit all opportunities, and have fun! If you enjoyed reading this article, you have something to say, or you just have a question, just write a comment in the comment section below or simply contact us on Twitter, or Facebook. In the mean time, stay tuned to the feed that rocks as the upcoming blog post will discuss the problem of negative comments and how to eliminate them from your lives once and for all. Thanks a lot and a great weekend!