Off-The-Wall Marketing Ideas by Nancy Michaels & Debbi J. Karpowicz

Author:Nancy Michaels & Debbi J. Karpowicz [Michaels, Nancy; Karpowicz, Debbi J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781440519604
Publisher: Adams Media
Published: 2000-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Stonyfield Farm, the Boston-based purveyor of all-natural yogurt, doesn’t use paid advertising. Instead, entrepreneur Gary Hirshberg relies on his natural ability to identify marketing opportunities in the most unusual places. Once, when a Boston radio-show host claimed that he would rather eat camel manure than natural foods, Hirshberg showed up at the station, the very next day, with a gallon of frozen camel manure and some yogurt. He gained immediate attention and an endorsement for Stonyfield. Another time, his employees handed out free yogurt to visitors outside the Today show at New York’s Rockefeller Center, which also resulted in national exposure. At other times, the company sends out “Moosletters” that explain the firm and its mission, plus five coupons to stimulate buying. It’s even gone so far as to create an “Adopt-a-Cow” that generated huge visibility for Stonyfield. 1

2. USE HUMOR.

Jill Smith was once known to hundreds of people as the “Bean Queen” (and it even said so on her business card). Smith and her husband, Doug, founded Buckeye Beans of Spokane, Washington. They won numerous awards and in 1996 were named the SBA’s Small Business Persons of the Year for their state. When the Smiths started their business, they launched a newsletter that became legendary due to their “Weird Recipe of the Month,” which was a spoof. The recipes included Bean Kebobs, and even summer Bean-cicles (blenderized beans frozen into Dixie cups). “Nobody read the newsletters,” says Jill. “But everyone read the Weird Recipe of the Month. Six or seven years later, people still called and asked us for the Weird Recipe of the Month.”

Smith says that humor was a big part of the business. They included “Wacky Wednesdays” when employees took silly breaks instead of coffee breaks. The day also included a company-bought lunch for all employees, which was headed by Doug; irreverently named “Dining with Dougie,” it was a nonthreatening environment in which each manager gave a three-minute talk about his or her department. “You didn’t exist here if you didn’t have a sense of humor,” says Jill with a laugh.

At the end of each year, you surely turn on the TV to hear about this year’s “worst-dressed list.” The list was created by a Mr. Blackwell— whose claim to fame is, well, his “worst-dressed list.” We don’t know if Mr. Blackwell ever actually designed anything—but his laughable list gets mountains of media attention for him annually!

Layla, a restaurant that opened in New York in November 1995, devised a humorous method to market its Middle Eastern food and its unconventional wines to customers. The reason? Many people are tentative about ordering a bottle of wine with their baba gannoujh. But the music and belly dancing inspired the owners to create a witty wine list. Categories include “What to drink when lost in the desert?” and “Which wine will impress your boss?” So far, the plan has worked faster than you can say “hummus.” 2 The owners have discovered that when patrons feel more at ease, and are less intimidated and more comfortable with the wine list, they are more apt to order a bottle.

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