Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

The Value of an Original Idea
Watching the Thanksgiving Day football games, I was surprised at the number of luxury car commercials that encourage people to give a $50,000 car as a Christmas present.

(BTW, what is the average income of NFL fans that the car companies think a $50,000 present is within reach of those watching the games?)

But what really struck me was the advantage that the first company to run this kind of campaign had given themselves by being first to do it. A few years ago, Lexus pioneered this Christmas-gift campaign with ads where the gift giver presented the recipient with a Lexus with a big, red bow on top.

This year, I counted only one ad like that. But EVERY TIME I saw a give-our-luxury-car-as-a-Christmas-gift ad by another car maker, I thought of Lexus. I had to consciously make a point of watching for the commercial to identify the make of car it was promoting.

In essence, by being the first to come up with this type of campaign, Lexus had turned EVERY copycat ad by EVERY copycat advertiser into an ad for Lexus.

It just goes to show what power there is in an original idea. An original idea, well executed, can associate your product so strongly in people's minds that once it is ingrained there, even your competitors' attempts to copy your success does more to bring your product to mind than it does to promote theirs.

So what original ideas can you come up with for your business?
Jeff

Labels: creativity, promote business

Are You Using What-Ifs to Create Wows?
Lately I've gotten hooked on a new TV show.

What does this have to do with Internet marketing?

I'll explain in a moment. First let me tell you about the show.

It's called Raines, and it's about a police detective who suddenly starts seeing dead people.

It has a deliciously devious twist, however, on other TV shows where psychics help people by getting tips from the dead.

In those other shows, the psychics help the ghosts because these psychcis are so good-hearted.

Raines, on the other hand is a tough, cynical homicide detective. He helps the dead people he sees just to get them to go away. It makes for some hilarious dialogue.

And he's not seeing the actual ghosts of the people, either. What he sees is a figment of his imagination, made up entirely out his own picture of the person. That, too, leads to some hilarious moments. Sometimes new evidence makes him think differently of the person and that person transforms before his eyes.

So what does this have to do with marketing? Just this. Sometimes you can create something entirely new simply by putting a different spin on something that already exists.

I picture the creators of Raines sitting down over a few beers some time ago. I picture their conversation wandering into how much they hate these shows where oh-so-serious and oh-so-tenderhearted do-gooders solve people's problems with help from ghosts.

I see one producer saying, "Hey, what if you had some tough, cynical cop who suddenly starts seeing dead people when he investigates their murders? He doesn't want to believe it, but they won't leave him alone until he solves their case."

Another producer chimes in, "Yeah, and what if they aren't ghosts, but just figments of his imagination. They can't solve the case for him because they can't tell him anything he doesn't already know."

The first one shoots back, "Perfect! That means they keep changing in his mind the more he finds out about them."

The other replies, "Like, he could think this one young woman is a sweet little girl next door. Then he find out she worked for an escort service. Poof! Suddenly he sees her as this hard-bitten hooker with a smoke in one hand, a drink in the other, and an instant set of double-D's!"

The first one says, "Yeah, and she gets ticked off at him because she doesn't like the way he changed her!"

I don't know if the show will catch on. But the approach they took to an established and successful idea is worth noting.

They started with with an idea that already existed and had proven successful. Then they took that idea and asked, "What if...?" They added their own, distinctive twist and came up with something totally new.

You can do the same thing in your business. What is there in your niche that has always been done exactly the same way? Look at it and ask yourself "What if...?" What if you pushed it in a different direction? What if you took the way everyone expects it to be and turned it upside down?

Most great marketing ideas aren't completely original. Most of them follow this pattern of putting a unique spin on something tried and tested.

But looking for a way to put your own unique spin on what's already there is a habit to develop.

Will every idea you have be a home run? No. You'll have a lot more whiffs than home runs, especially at first.

But the more you develop this way of thinking, the better you'll get at it. And you never know when you'll knock the ball out of the park.
Jeff

Labels: creativity, marketing