What I learned this summer: New Rules of Marketing

Marketing used to be about getting as many people as possible to see your logo and hear your message. Today, it is about creating a powerful contagious idea. An idea that is so intriguing that people want to share it with one another. The new goal of marketing is to seed that idea in the right places and at the right times.

The first step is to identify your special sauce. What is that “magic something” that will have people talking about you? Why would someone tell their co-workers, friends, neighbors, and even perfect strangers about your business? It’s got to be short and simple. Think about the last time someone told you about a product or a company.

I spent much of last year living in Santa Cruz, CA but when I returned to Seattle in June everyone was talking about Peseo in Freomont. What is it about this place that would compel 596 people to write a Yelp review? Why do people drive across town and stand in line? It’s because they make a great pork sandwich and people are talking about it. Have you seen a single ad or heard a radio advertisement? Yet, they sell out nearly every night. People honestly love those sandwiches!

After you have defined your unique-ness the next step is to seed the conversation. You need to place your self in view of the people who will be talking about you. The first step is to figure out where these people already are. In the beginning you will need to go to them.

When you are bringing a new product or service to the marketplace the hardest thing to do is to build a demand where one did not exist before. One of the best case studies for success is Red Bull. The company was founded in 1985 by Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian who was a former marketing director for a Procter & Gamble subsidiary. He spent two years researching and developing the product. By the time the ubiquitous silver and blue can came to the United States in 2007 they had perfected their marketing strategy. Dietrich realized early on that the best method to get consumers to try the product was testimonials from peers who bought into Red Bull. To enable the buzz around their product to grow they supplemented their strategy with event sponsorships, athlete endorsers, sampling programs, and point-of-purchase marketing.

Green innovators if we are truly going to reinvent the world we need to be as focused on our product or service as Peseo and as savvy as Red Bull. There are two golden rules to marketing that can aid us in building the future: 1) 90% of purchasing decisions are based on emotion, not reason 2) Peer-to-peer testimonials are the single most important marketing tool at your disposal.

Green innovators, much of the work has been done for you, our community knows it needs to change, and it wants to change. But changing culturally ingrained habits are hard to do. To enable change we need to be product focused and market savvy. The recipe for success is simple: deliver an unbeatable product at a competitive price and put it in the hands of the influencers who will operate as evangelists to shower praise all over town. How do you plan on revolutionizing the future?