I love a bit of marketing genius (who doesn’t?). Here’s three I’ve come across recently.
1. Woolworths free fruit for kids
So I was in Coles with Ami the other day, and she was losing it because I wasn’t letting her eat her banana until I had actually paid for it. (I relented and bought a single banana before doing the rest of the shopping.)
That was when I realised the evil genius behind this campaign from Woolies*:
What’s not to love, right? It’s healthy, it’s for kids and it’s free. There is a Woolworths across the road from Scarlett’s school, and I’ll often take both girls in to pick stuff up after school.
But now of course Ami is trained that at the supermarket you get to eat a banana. And consequently I’m now trained that if I have the girls with me, I’ll go to Woollies. Just not worth the argument otherwise.
2. F45 social media
The F45 training studio phenomenon (apparently the fastest growing franchise ever in Australia) demonstrates one of the best uses of social media that I’ve seen.
They offer local people with big social media followings free membership for six months – think models, reality TV folks, minor celebrities etc. Then F45 takes videos and pictures of their training sessions, and posts online tagging the celebrity. So suddenly all of the celebrity’s followers are seeing them training at the gym.
The genius in this is that if I went to a celebrity and asked them to become a brand ambassador for my gym, and post to their list every week, it would cost me $50k. But F45 is getting it for $3k worth of contra. Genius.
3. Tesla pricing
I’ve decided that my next car is going to be a Tesla, and so I’ve booked in a test drive. One of the things I love about this experience is that the price is the price.
Elon Musk wrote an email to the Tesla dealerships that included this:
First, I’d like to congratulate you on an excellent quarter so far! This is likely to be the best ever in Tesla history thanks in large part to your efforts.
That said, it is absolutely vital that we adhere to the no negotiation and no discount policy that has been true since we first started taking orders 10 years ago. This is fundamental to our integrity and we maintain this policy even through the terrible depths of the great recession of 2008/2009.
It is fine to have a discount on cars that have been floor models, or used in test drives or were damaged before delivery. All we are doing there is assigning an accurate price to the vehicle. However, there can never –and I mean never–be a discount on a new car coming out of the factory in pristine condition, where there is no underlying rationale.
For me, and I don’t think I’m Robinson Crusoe on this, negotiating for a car is the most stressful part of the whole process. Taking this out of the equation has again differentiated Tesla from everyone else and made the whole experience easier and more enjoyable. Genius.
(Not to mention publishing the email, and watching it go viral.)
Final thoughts
It’s worth thinking about how you can be more sticky for your existing customers, help your customers share what they do with you, and be easier to do business with.
*Coles and Woolies (Woolworths) are the two main supermarket chains in Australia.
