The Greatest Marketing Movie of All Time!

So tonight while watching the Olympics, I was playing around on iTunes downloading a couple movies for some upcoming trips. I decided to download one of my favorite movies of all time, which also happens to be the greatest marketing movie ever created. Some of you may have heard of it. It’s a small indie flick.

Now before everyone thinks I’ve gone nuts, let me explain. In this movie there are three key elements that, if applied, will dramatically improve any business or marketing program.

Key Message Number 1:

If you build it, he will come.

Opening the doors of your business is simply not enough. You must create a strong stable platform on which you can compete. You must be the best in your market, or have a good reason someone should buy from you. You’ve got to give them a reason to pay attention to you.

When Warren Buffett is looking for a business to invest in he says he is looking for, “Durable Competitive Advantage.” Durable Competitive Advantage is about creating a platform to compete on for the long term. Most small business say they compete on Customer Service. And usually the ones who preach that the loudest are often the worst at it. If you pick something as your competitive platform, make sure you are able to be the best, and sustain it. Measure it. Keep an eye on your competitors, and make sure you are ahead of them in your platform.

Only once you master your platform will any other marketing work. Simply started, if you don’t build something worth coming to for the long term, people will not come.

Key Message Number 2:

Ease His Pain

Your main goal in business is to identify and solve your customers pain. Consumers love to create pain. They need new clothes, new cars, new golf clubs, new jewelry, whatever you sell. And that pain burns deep. It’s your job to identify those pains and solve them.

Finding a pain and solving it is not as simple as saying, “I’ve got golf clubs for sale, buy from me”. People don’t buy golf clubs because they want them, they buy them because they want to outdrive their golfing buddies, or out putt their spouse, or join the golfing team, or be like Tiger. They have a reason, and you need to understand that before you can even begin to ease it.

Keep in mind, consumers often have multiple pains. The more you can solve at once, and the better you understand them, the more prospective customers will trust you.

Key Message Number 3:

Go The Distance.

Once you understand what your customers are looking for, and you know how to solve that pain, it does you no good unless you can communicate that. Too often businesses just run an ad when they feel like it. Or just because their ad rep tell them its time.

Running an ad campaign must be strategic. You must make a plan to communicate your new found pain solving methods. Customers need to know that you have the ability to make their pain go away, that you sympathize with them, and that you are the best solution to solve their pain now.

To do that you need to have a strategic plan to run a series of branding and action ads. Branding ads position you as an expert in your field, and action ads show how you can solve specific pains. You need to run both, and run them consistently in order to make an impact. Running a sale on every third friday won’t cut it. It’ll just make your ad rep money. Stop wasting your money on stupid one shot ads, either commit to a real plan or get out of the way.

Later on I will go more in depth on each topic and give you some ideas on how to put each into play. If you have questions in the meantime, feel free to contact me.

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