Remember the star of the old TV series, Wyatt Earp? Hugh O’Brian was his name but he has a greater claim to fame than being do-gooder Marshall Earp. That is the organization that he established in 1958 called HOBY. HOBY is a youth leadership development program. Every year HOBY accepts only ONE sophomore from every high school in the world to participate in a world leadership conference.
My presentation focused on how the teams could differentiate their products and services. I talked about I.P.S. This acronym is a great way to remember how to differentiate your company, product and service and create marketing attraction. It stands for: Integration, Personalization, and Scarcity.
Integration
Today traditional advertising and marketing is more expensive and less effective than ever before. People are numb to sales pitches and they have a very short span of attention. Integrated marketing solutions help us to build the marketing right into the product itself. Think of Hotmail when they first began nearly a decade ago… When you sent someone a message using Hotmail, they received an invitation to join themselves. The marketing was built right into the product. Even more relevant today is myspace.com. Now with nearly 80 million members you can configure myspace.com to automatically send information to everyone in your address book if you like. That means that everyone in your sphere of influence knows what’s happening in your life. That’s super connectivity!
Personalization
Personalization is all around us in marketing today. How about the way that Scion automobiles have created thousands of choices for car buyers? It is probably the most customizable automobile ever built. Virtually EVERYTHING can be changed, type of body style, interior, exterior, sound, wheels finish, trim, etc. This allows buyers to truly personalize their Scion. All kinds of products and services are personalizing these days. I went to get ice cream recently (that means another hour on the treadmill). It was a place I’ve never been – Cold Stone ice cream. I was amazed at the way they have build personalization into the product. At Cold Stone, you create your own personal desert. You pick the ice cream, tell them how you want it prepared, the toppings and they mix them right into the ice cream. This all happens right in front of you in minutes.
ScarcityFinally, scarcity is another powerful marketing tactic that can be employed. Think about how many products have incorporated scarcity into their marketing. Apple’s I-pod when it first came out. The Xbox 360 – some kids waited in a line overnight just to be the first to get the product when it was released. Motorola decided to build demand for the Razr phone when it was first released by manufacturing only a very limited quantity.
Often times these three methods of marketing are counter-intuitive. We think that we should homogenize our product and design it for as many people as possible. Yet this is counter to I.P.S. and the Rules of Attraction. My advice to you is to think about ways that you can use these methods to create demand with your own company, product and services. When you do, you will find that you can spend less on marketing and reap far greater rewards.
Also, check out our Attract More Business Program that takes you systematically through creating a marketing attraction program.
I hope that this “Business Update” has been helpful in assisting you to improve the performance of your organization. For more information on how the Small Business Advisory Network assists companies in improving their performance, please feel free to contact us at 310-320-8190 or email mark@markdeo.com.
Have a great week!