Being Buff: Marketing the social economy

I mailed a letter to Barack Obama today.

I was inspired to write it after listening to his book Dreams From My Father – read by him. The communication angle is simple: I am very curious what response, if any, I will get.

Stay tuned…..

Tags: Obama
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Today more than ever, online or offline, one key to successful marketing is providing value in addition to asking for people’s time, money or both. I recently got what I thought was an excellent example of value-adding marketing hung on my mailbox by a local cleaning company, Brown’s Cleaners.

Someone dropped a free, nylon dry cleaning bag on everyone’s mailbox on my street. The bags are blue, heavy nylon with the Brown’s logo on them.

Attached to the bag was the lovely little piece below.

The shirt is a pamphlet with info about Brown’s free pick-up delivery service that includes their number and web address.

I thought this was a lovely piece of marketing – until I read the letter that came with it. The letter indicates that the bag and other marketing gems were delivered by a Brown’s service representative and says, “If you don’t require my services, please don’t throw out the Brown’s Blue Bag. Simply leave it outside on Saturday and will pick it up….” My heart sank. They wanted my bag back.

They made me think I was getting something of value for free by delivering it in a way free stuff usually comes – in the mailbox – but instead of  letting me keep it they wanted to take it back.

They should let me keep the bag even if I want to use it to bring in my own clothes. That would keep me happy and earn a loyal customer.

I  hope someone from Brown’s is listening.

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This weekend me and my kids took in some children’s theatre put on by our local performing arts school, Canterbury High. Now, you’d think that digital natives like high school students would know all the latest social media ways to get the word out about what they’re doing and maybe these students do and did. But I didn’t find out about it through any social media channel. I found out about it by reading a poster stuck on a lamppost outside my kid’s school that also houses his daycare. The lamppost is right outside the door many parents use to leave the daycare after picking up their kids. The parents are much more likely to stop because they’re not rushing like in the morning.

The appropriate tool for the target audience. That’s effective communications.

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Sometimes all it takes is putting a new twist on an old technique – like the postcard.

The picture above is a postcard I recently received from local real estate agent Elaine Taggart. I had received a number of cards from Taggart before that all went in my recycler becase I don’t need a real estate agent – but this one caught my attention. That’s because I found the mock newspaper format cool and the caption below the photo of the little girl on the left also intrigued me. It says, “This recently discovered photograph depicts a mystery person with Elaine Taggart (right). People of Ottawa are now scratching their heads and wondering who could be so close to Elaine. Who is this person? Will we ever know?”

The text under the headline “Big changes coming for local sales representative” includes this paragraph, “what most people don’t realize about Elaine is that she has been harbouring a secret wish for the last 25 years, but how does that wish relate to real estate? Many people have wondered why she wont’ reveal the identity of the person next to her in the photograph. Can you guess who it is…? Stay tuned.”

I have to admit, I am curious. Now that doesn’t mean I would buy a house from Elaine – but she did get me talking about her.

One opportunity she is missing is linking old school to new school: there is no mention of the card on her website and so no easy way to let people speak back to her about what they think.

Posted in Advertising, Old school | 1 Comment »