A Marketing Gimmick That Worked…
Although not a big fan of marketing gimmicks, here is one that proved successful for us. Beer was involved…
The back story. When I moved to AZ in 1996, I ended up with a 602 phone number, while my business partner in MN had a 612 number. Furthermore, we had an answering service (also 612), and we knew this would cause confusion.
Particularly for the poor saps receiving our wrong numbers. We discussed an 800 number, but then things got interesting.
We had already jokingly declared our selves as “EMI-GURUs” (EMI = Electromagnetic Interference, our engineering speciality), and thought that would be a good number. But while the 800 number was not available, the newly opened 888 number was. So we jumped on it.
In addition the phone number, we then secured the URL www.emiguru.com for a planned website, launched soon after.
Being on a roll, we even had a button made. We took the button to a trade show, and had people clamoring for them. Even our competitors were sporting them — all in good fun.
We knew we had a winner!
We later handed them out to clients and students— probably 5000 or more. On one occasion I walked into a test lab with a new client, and stuck on a cubicle wall was our button.
Needless to say it gave the client great confidence. (I made sure he went home with one.)
No, we did NOT copy the Staples business stores with their “Easy” button. I like to think they may have copied us 🙂
BTW it is red because I’m a graduate of the University of Nebraska — AKA “Big Red.”
Gimmicks can be tricky. As a professional, you don’t want to be seen as too silly. Overall, this was a great success.We were soon known across the US electrical engineering community as the “EMI-GURUs.” Easy to know how to contact us too. And people even pinned them in their cubicles for everyone to see.
For this and another successful gimmick, see Lead Generator #19 – Gimmicks.
This post was inspired by the daily marketing letter from Graham McGregor of New Zealand. Been following him for years. Contact him here for more creative marketing ideas.
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