Unexpected Idea » Unexpected Messages

Education is your Best Marketing Tool

Brendon — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:02:40 +0000

Last week my family and I were on holiday in Napier, New Zealand and on one of the days we visited the Arataki Honey Visitor Centre in Havelock North. The centre was fun for the kids and we all learned something more about bees and honey, as well as the damage caused by the varroa mite to the beekeeping industry. However, what was most interesting to me was the reinforcement of a view that education is your best marketing tool.

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing defines marketing as ‘getting your market to know, like and trust you’.

Know: Did I know Arataki Honey before our visit? No not really. Do I now? Yes.

Like: Do I like the Arataki Honey brand more as a result of the visit? Yes – kids had a good time, we all learned something, and we got to taste honey.

Trust: Do I trust Arataki Honey more as a result of the visit? Yes – through their centre they engaged me in their world and demonstrated their credibility in all things bees and honey.

Note: Arataki Honey could have chosen to use their visitor centre investment for more traditional marketing approaches. They could have done what most other businesses do and advertise the features of their product, in this case honey – 100% natural, a naturally sweet alternative to sugar, zero fat, great taste, etc. Would this have been as effective? In my opinion no.

So what does this mean for your business?

Let’s move away from the full frontal marketing assault, where we interrupt our market (and those not in our market), present our product or service, and list out the features. Instead let’s not interrupt our market, make available valuable educational facilities or content that in someway relate to our products or services, and engage with our community that gets value from this education.

For example, if you run an environmentally friendly residential waste disposal business, you could do a mail drop presenting your service, and listing bin sizes, prices, pickup days and your environmental policy. But, perhaps a better approach would be to do a mail drop in your area inviting a people to a free seminar covering topics such as how to create a home compost, items that can be recycled, and how to minimise the cost of home waste disposal. Through these free seminars people in your area would get to know you, like you, (and through your useful information) trust you. When they need a waste disposal service it is likely that you would be the organisation they look to.

Until now I have purposefully stayed away from mentioning the internet in this post. However, a quick note on it now to finish off. The internet provides a fantastic platform to educate your market. You can provide educational content, whitepapers, ebooks, and posts on your blog or website. You can put educational content into podcasts or videos. You can engage in forums and answer peoples questions in your area of expertise. In addition to adding educational value to your community (leading to know, like and trust), you also build valuable content that:

If useful people will link to – a key factor in increasing your search rankings in search engines
Is loaded with relevant keywords for your product or service – another key factor in increasing your search rankings in search engines.

So team, let’s not just market, let’s educate.

Some Other Articles You May Enjoy

I Yike the Yike Bike

Brendon — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 08:56:39 +0000

I have been fascinated by the New Zealand designed and developed Yike Bike, which has been profiled on New Zealand TV3 recently, and has also been launched at the Germany Eurobike Show this last week. The Yike Bike is an electric bike, that can be collapsed and carried away in a carry bag. With a penny farthing configuration, the Yike Bike is small, portable and environmentally friendly. Weighing only 10 kilograms, the bike can ride at speeds of up to 20 km/h and will travel 10 kilometres after a 30 minute charge.

The Yike Bike was designed by Dr Grant Ryan, a New Zealand serial entrepreneur who was also the founder of New Zealand companies GlobalBrain and Eurekster. Leveraging funding from Technology New Zealand, the plan is to grow an international export market for the bike, which they hope will revolutionise urban transport.

I love the Yike Bike and the initial marketing also looks very impressive – “I park where I damn well yike”, “I yike not paying for petrol”. Very pleased to see this unexpected, innovative, and environmentally friendly product come out of my home country of New Zealand.

Check out the below video to see the Yike Bike in action (Dr Grant Ryan is the driver of the car in the clip).

Photos of Apollo Moon Landing Sites

Brendon — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 08:52:18 +0000

I have been quite intrigued by the photos from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter taken a couple of weeks ago which show the Apollo moon landing sites. As you can see in the photos below, there are are few dots with shadows showing the lunar modules left on the moon surface from the manned missions. Plus in the Apollo 14 photo you can see what NASA describes as the Astronaut footpath between the lunar module and scientific instruments.

Apollo 11 Landing Site (photo: NASA)

Apollo 14 Landing Site (photo: NASA)

I have often wondered about the moon landings. While I hadn’t necessarily bought into the conspiracy theories that the moon landings were a hoax, it also seemed too incredible to be true that man could land on the moon just 66 years after the Wright brothers (or as us New Zealanders prefer to state ‘Richard Pearce‘) first succeeded with sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight.

While the die hard conspiracy theorists will argue that the photos have been photoshopped, it seems to me that the images provide strong proof that the US did land manned misions on the moon.

In December 1972 Apollo 17 was the sixth and last manned mission to the moon. It seems a shame that in the 37 years since we have made no further progress in manned exploration of the moon.

More photos are available from NASA Lunar Reconnaisance Orbitor.

Willy Wonka Differentiation

Brendon — Sun, 17 May 2009 00:20:25 +0000

This blog is about business differentiation, but not just small points of differentiation – I’m interested in differentiation that is unexpected. Differentiation that re-defines the game, violates expectations, and grabs attention. We have already seen some great examples of this – Terracycle who built a business on worm poop and waste, Moller who is working to build a flying car, Stone Aerospace who want to mine the moon for rocket fuel, the Cinnamon Club who made the hottest curry in the world.

In New Zealand where I live, the most common chocolate brand is Cadbury. Cadbury’s products are differentiated – good quality, large variety, recognised brand, distinctive purple colouring. All very good.

But compare Cadbury with Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory (my daughter has been watching the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and yes I know it is make believe, but it still raises some useful comparisons). Wonka himself is different. And his business differentiation goes far beyond Cadbury’s quality, variety, and branding. He has the only chocolate factory in the world that uses a waterfall to mix his chocolate. He uses squirrels to open the nuts. He has a glass elevator that moves sideways as well as up and down. He is experimenting with never seen before products and delivery channels – a never ending gobstopper, a ‘full meal’ chewing gum, and a teleporter for chocolate bars. He uses only Oompa-Loompas to work in his factory. Most of all he creates mystery and exclusivity around his chocolate factory, so much so that goldern tickets to visit the factory are highly valued items. If you haven’t seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, check out the movie trailer below, which gives a good summary of Willy Wonka differentiation.

Willy Wonka differentiation is what this blog is about. Differentiation that is so different that it stops people in their tracks and they can’t help but pay attention. What could you do to include some Willy Wonka differentiation in your business?

Hottest Curry in the World

Brendon — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:35:16 +0000

A few years while living and working in London I was fortunate enough to attend a team lunch at The Cinnamon Club, an upmarket Indian restaurant in Westminster. At the time the restaurant was (and may still be) part owned by Sir Michael Caine.

I was intrigued to find that this same restaurant recently received media attention for having what is claimed to be the hottest curry in the world – the Bollywood Burner. The Bollywood Burner is a lamb curry with naga chili peppers, which are said to be more than 100 times hotter than jalapeno chili peppers (wow!). Diners are required to sign a legal disclaimer before eating the curry.

What fascinates me with the story is that the dish itself is not practical – it is too hot for anyone to eat and enjoy their meal. However, as a marketing tool it is pure genius. Most Indian restaurants are much the same as each other, with similar menus and similar ambience. While The Cinnamon Club has always been differentiated from your standard corner balti house, having the ‘hottest curry in the world’ further differentiates this restaurant from the masses. The extreme assertion of the ‘hottest curry in the world’ also violates our expectations – we don’t come across this every day so we and the media pay attention. Finally the ‘hottest curry in the world’ story is memorable – it sticks in our mind. If we lived in London and wanted an Indian meal or were asked to recommend an Indian restaurant, The Cinnamon Club would surely be front of mind because of this unexpected story.

Check out this YouTube clip of Jonathan Ross and Steve Carell tasting the Bollywood Burner – it’s a great laugh.

Start with an Unexpected Business or Product

Brendon — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:31:32 +0000

Unexpected messages follow naturally from an unexpected business or product. It is difficult to deliver an authentic unexpected message if your business and products are undifferentiated. If you want to deliver messages that have real impact and grab attention, maybe the best place to start is thinking about how you can make your business or products unique, differentiated, and unexpected – then an unexpected message will be both easier and more authentic.

In their book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die brothers’ Chip and Dan Heath provide an example of Outpost.com who released a Superbowl commercial where wolves attack a marching band on the football field (included below). Humans are wired to pay attention to threats – such as wolves attacking – so clearly this commercial would have been unexpected and memorable. However, with no connection to the business or product it is questionable whether this unexpected message would have been effective.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k40ViflvUgk[/youtube]

I Need Some Space

Brendon — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:45:54 +0000

April 1981 - Living in the USA, the nine year old boy from New Zealand was obsessed with space lego. He watched on television as the Space Shuttle Columbia took flight for the first time and dreamed of one day becoming an astronaut. Like the generation before him, who had witnessed the first manned space flight and the first man on the moon, he felt that he would live in a time of great space exploration.

27 years later, now as an adult, I do feel a slight anti-climax at the rate of progress of space flight. In 27 years we have seen a few more space shuttle flights and an international space station – but nothing like the Star Trek-fuelled childhood dreams of spacecraft exploring new solar systems and planets.

But with a number of commercial organisations now getting involved, are we finally on the brink of an exciting period of development in space flight?

Most well known would be Virgin Galactic. They have commissioned the development of two launch aeroplanes and five spacecraft that they will use to take paying tourists into space from approximately 2009 / 2010. Their website is fascinating and worth a look. At around US$200,000 a trip you will need to start saving your pocket money now.

Virgin Galactic

Jeff Bezos of Amazon, has also set up a space tourist business ‘Blue Origin’, with plans to offer a commercial sub-orbital space tourist flights from 2010.

Even little New Zealand is getting involved with local company Rocket Lab developing a small unmanned rocket that could be used for research and space burials.

Futurist, Dr James Canton, anticipates a number of future trends in space including space tourism, space mining, and space discoveries (leading to advances in medicine and innovations). Bring on new unexpected ideas and developments in space.

I don’t eat organic lentils but I did vote green

Brendon — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:21:56 +0000

On Saturday 8 November, just four days after US citizens voted in Obama in as their new President, New Zealanders too went to the polls to vote in their preferred Government for the coming three years.

Now I generally don’t consider myself to be an organic lentil eating, vege patch growing, tree hugger. However, this election I did vote for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Green can no longer be considered something quirky left to well intended ex-hippies wanting to legalise cannabis. For the future of our world and our children, the impact on the environment and sustainability needs to become a dominant consideration in every individual, business, national, and international decision.

Over the coming years the world population is expected to swell to nine billion people, all competing for scarce natural resources – that some expect to run out by 2030. My children will be in their 20s by 2030 – only just starting out on their lives – and I want them to have an inhabitable planet to live on. So my vote for Green was to give influence to those who will represent the interests of the environment and sustainability in important Government decisions.

I have to admit also, as an observer to good marketing and communication, I thought the Green advertising was fantastic – simple, unexpected, concrete, and emotional. An excellent example of great communication.

And on election night the Green party actually did pretty well, gaining eight seats in the New Zealand Parliament. Unfortunately however, with a centre-right Government elected, and Green not part of this Government coalition, the party’s influence will be less as a result.

Ripped off by the Discount

Brendon — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 09:38:18 +0000

Even at 4pm on Saturday afternoon Borders was packed (okay, so I’m exaggerating just a little – this is Wellington, New Zealand after all). Pushing our 6 month old boy in the buggy in front of me, I slowly navigated the isles, while my wife and daughter sat reading books in the children’s area. Why were we there? Why were so many other people there?

I was most certainly there because I had received discount coupons by email the day before offering 50% off each adult book and each childrens’ book purchased. I think most of the other people were there for the same reason.

So the discount coupons were successful in getting us to the store and purchasing. And as a consumer I was happy to get books at a great discount.

However, if I look at my own behaviour with stores who discount regularly, there are some undesirable side effects of discounting (for the retailer). At Borders for example I now expect discounts. I won’t pay full price there - I’ll wait and purchase when there is a satisfactory discount. As a result of its discounting strategy, Borders will never again make full sales margin from my purchases. The same at our local supermarket. I know certain items are discounted regularly, so I only purchase when there are savings to be made and buy sufficient quantity to get us through to the next discount cycle.

But probably the worst aspect of discounting is the bad taste it leaves for those customers who didn’t get a discount or got a lesser discount. We had a chuckle at work when the 50% Borders vouchers were emailed on Friday. One of my colleagues had purchased a book from Borders the week before with a mere 30% discount voucher – what a rip off!

Perhaps Borders would be better to use an ‘unexpected idea’ strategy rather than a ‘discount’ strategy to get people into their store.

The Pig Ate My Plate

Brendon — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 08:49:16 +0000

Potatopak plate

According to a recent Time Small Business article The Dish on Green Disposables Americans use an estimated trillion disposable plates and utensils every year, with each disposable plate’s useful life averaging just five minutes. Add to this the fact that disposable plastic plates do not decompose – they sit in landfills for hundreds of years.

By contrast, New Zealand company Potatopak shows a video on their website of pigs eating their disposable plates. If you have been to a barbeque or party in recent years in New Zealand, you may have found yourself eating off a Potatopak plate made from potato starch. The plates are 100% biodegradable and completely decompose in a few weeks or months.

Potatopak’s potato starch is extracted from food processing plant waste water. So, Potatopak’s products are environmentally friendly, their manufacturing process produces zero waste, and they even reduce (and create value from) the waste of other processing facilities.

The Time article (referenced above) also went on to discuss environmentally friendly disposable plates made of leaves steamed into shape – from a US company Verterra.

I thought that both Potatopak and Verterra had excellent ‘unexpected ideas’ that are helping our environment as well as helping the companies gain attention.

Unexpected Idea » Unexpected Messages

Education is your Best Marketing Tool

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