Bebe Akinboade
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HOW TO CREATE MARKETING STRATEGIES THAT WORK

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There was a time back in the fifties when microwaves ovens
were first seriously marketed. They were marketed to women on the basis of
speed. Bad move. Women were afraid of them. Kitchens at the time were small and
there was no room.  More importantly, housewives thought that they were
shirking their duties by using this new fangled gadget. At that time, women
were expected to cook. Not to cook fast, but to slave over a hot oven. 

So some marketing gurus at the time came up with a creative idea. They sold
microwaves to men. Men loved the technology so much, that they talked their
wives into buying one. They were first used for defrosting, or reheating
leftovers. They soon became a staple of modern culture. They forced their way
into the lives of people. Kitchens also became bigger.

So it was creative marketers who created the interest in the device. A
similar thing is happening with the insipid Keurig coffee machine that makes
only one cup if mediocre coffee at a price that rivals gas. They were first
sold to coffee lovers who wanted a new show-offy appliance. But the product is
trickling down to mainstream America.
Yes, I have one, but I digress.

It was marketing and thinking outside the box that created the demand. Call
it creative marketing. Now, I have heard time and time again that small
businesses have no time for marketing. Is it more fun to write checks than
invoices? The object of creative marketing is to make your product or service a
necessary part of daily life. Creative marketing is finding a one sentence
solution or mnemonic that turns your product or service into a must have –
either emotionally or physically. It’s not that hard, once you find a segment
of people you want to sell to and hit their “hot button.”

Okay, you now have a product that’s going to become a part of someone’s
life. Do you wait for sales to come in? No you’re proactive, using every means
possible to get your product in front of a customer.

  •  Try social media –
    there’s a great deal about it on this site
  •  Do tiny postcard
    mailings to your prospects
  •  Get involved in
    community special events
  • Consider using your product
    as a fundraiser. I do volunteer work for a company that teaches people to
    read, and non English speakers to speak English. Since they have seen
    their funding cut, they are always looking for new sources of revenues.
    That’s common to all non-profits.

Sell your product to the people who seem to have the most need. Who are
those people? Like the microwave oven inventors, you have to figure it out – or
at least guess. It’s part of creative marketing. But what does creative
marketing actually mean? It’s selling in new ways people haven’t sold before
and creating a need that most people don’t know they have.

To whom? To the people who are most likely to buy your product.

But what do you do if you don’t have a product? Find a problem and solve it
in a new way. More about that in future columns. So what is there to know about
marketing? Here are the ten commandments. Very successful marketers know them
or use them subconsciously.

The Ten Commandments of Marketing:

  1. Thou shalt look at the
    customers interest before thy own.
  2. Thou shalt enjoy the thrill
    of success. And learn lessons from failure.
  3. Thou shalt listen before thou
    speaks.
  4. Thou shalt honor the product
    (it can be you) and nurture it until it grows.
  5. Thou shalt immerse thyself in
    thy customers’ wants and needs
  6. Thou shalt wallow in the
    beauty of ideas.
  7. Thou shalt use the tools of
    emotion in every sale.
  8. Thou shalt not immerse
    thyself in self-pity.
  9. Thou shalt blaze trails to
    the customer.
  10. Thou shalt respect thyself
    and thy abilities.

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