Do Something Different

January 15, 2008

I know when I get into a funky place that I’ve been on autopilot for an extended length of time. Same breakfast, same lunch locales, same conversations, well, you know… the same ol’, same ol’. Even the people I know who thrive on consistency and schedules still enjoy a departure from time to time to jump start the heart.

With marketing, I believe we can get into a rut. We sign up for networking groups, we talk to the same referral partners, we set up sales and marketing systems so that everything goes off like clockwork, and while all of this is good, we still need to retain that certain special something that allows that twinkle in our eye to shine.

One thing you can do to add a little race to your pulse is to do something different. Something zany will do just fine. Something really out there might be even better. You choose the level of adventure that is right for you.

Here are some ‘different’ things that people did that pushed them out of their comfort zone and into results!

Scott Stratten was a speaker who wanted to get more high-paying speaking gigs. He was following the usual protocol given by speaking experts when he landed on a ‘big idea.’ He launched his now infamous Time Movie and racked up a cool 250,000 subscribers to his e-newsletter. He also reached his goal of more speaking gigs, more product sales, and in the process launched a whole new company dedicated to helping others also launch successful movies.
Kim Holstein dreamt of making pretzels. Not just ordinary pretzels, mind you, she wanted to ‘stuff’ them with all kinds of yummy ingredients. Feeding her ‘dream jar,’ she and Scott began making pretzels in their small Chicago apartment. They took them door to door selling them to local outlets. Before long, they rented space and opened their first pretzel bakery. The big break came when QVC included them on a Super Bowl promotion and they sold millions of pretzels in two hours! Try them!
You’ve no doubt heard of Hooters – the mega chain restaurant that has made its way into our pop culture. But did you hear about how they launched onto the scene? Classic shoestring marketing put the first Hooters on the map. By all evidence, the original Hooters was a total dive. However, they attracted tons of press by asking the winner of a local bikini contest to wear one of their t-shirts and pose with the founder who was dressed up in a chicken costume! Not one to pass up a free advertising opportunity, one of the founders also swam out to an overturned boat and painted HOOTERS on the side. Several years later when the chain was at risk with the EEOC due to lack of male representation in its wait staff, the company’s owners marched on Capital Hill with their Hooter’s girls and fans in tow. Moral of the story: never underestimate the power of media.
Standing out from the crowd, Woot.com takes everything that works in internet marketing (think scarcity, deadlines, and urgency) and drives it toward selling one item per day until it is sold out. This site is a phenomenon in and of itself – most items sell out before noon and are posted at midnight of each day. Quirky and not always the lower price, Woot could inspire you to depart from the masses.

Depart from the crowd and see how you stand out! Dare to do SOMETHING different today. Or not. You can start small (haircut, change the route you take to drive home) or big (like the stories above) or mix it up. If you aren’t feeling a little queasy (you are approaching the edge of that comfort zone at that point), then up the ante!

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