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Most people who visit my blog know that I love Marketer and Bestselling author Seth Godin. I am currently working my way through every book he has written. I also subscribe to his blog. If you have never heard of Seth Godin and you are trying your hand at marketing online or offline, you should Google or rather YouTube any Seth Godin video you can find. The video below is of Seth Godin’s talk at Google on the discussion of All Marketers are Liars, link here. I have to give Seth Godin credit for making me seek to deliver things that are remarkable.

Popularity: 21% [?]

I have always admired the style and brand that PUMA offers. But more often than not, the company’s clothes don’t fit me as well as others. Must be that Europeans have smaller feet and figures, ha. Recently, I did manage to find a PUMA T-shirt that I liked. This shirt was nothing special other than having a PUMA logo and being plain and black. But what was special was the shirt’s tag.

I did take a scan of the tag but with the print so small, it is still hard to read. On the research portion of the tag it has some facts and graphs. The first is a pie chart that points out that 4% of people regularly read the tags and that 96% of people do something more important. This leads to the graph directly below, with the X coordinates being the “Boring” scale and the Y coordinates the “Things to Do” scale.

I like things that are clever. What I learned was not only is PUMA stylish but intellectually stimulating, who knew? Here are the rest of the quotes from the tag:

Under Corporate Message: “So you’re interested in PUMA? Nice move. You’re obviously smart, confident and know what you want in life. Sure, you work hard, but you’re no slave to the rat race. You know the score. You call the shots. You make the most of you chances. So buy this, it suits you.”

Under Sportlifestyle: “PUMA has been in the Helps-You-Look-Good business since 1948. We know what we’re doing. People in magazines wear this stuff. Fashion people, sporty people. People who don’t have to wear a suit everyday. So, we know it works.”

Under Everyone: “Suitable for: training, napping, eating, driving, sports, whatever.”

Only if I had taken the time to read the tag first. Now I am not sure if some rouge marketer in the company thought it would be a good idea just to make people laugh or if they had studies that showed people who actually read the tags enjoyed the humor and tended to share it with others. I know that you are now hearing about PUMA’s clothes tags because I think it is worth remarking about. What is remarkable about your product or my product or any product for that matter?

Popularity: 20% [?]

I know that giving your customers what they want sounds like a novel idea. But a lot of people only think they know what their customer wants. This is why you see huge difference between companies that listen to their customers and the ones that refuse to (or at least are very very slow to). Recently the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have been cutting a lot of jobs in order to make up for the losses that they are receiving from a lack of subscriptions and advertising.

I really want to know why so many newspapers across the country are shelling out millions and millions of dollars to run AP (Associated Press) articles while continuing to watch their advertising revenue go down the drain. If one of your primary sources from news costs a lot of money to maintain and your readership is going down, something will need to change in order to stay afloat. It couldn’t possibly be that the same people reading your newspaper already read those AP stories online. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen an article in the paper that I read a day or two ago online. Wow, no wonder people are running from newspapers. They are old news.

In order to stay relevant and remarkable in a world that is instant, businesses have to change. The business of media, such as newspapers, radio and television are being flipped on their head because of the light speed of the Internet. So what can they offer that the Internet can’t? How about local news for a change? I know newspapers do report local news, but I can’t remember the last time I read about a debate outside of the Letters to the Editor section. Remember the days when reporters were more than reciters and were more objective in their reporting? God forbid if someone writes from their own opinion or stirs up some debate between two opposing groups in town. That used to be good news. It was entertaining and fun to participate in. Even if the news or facts were slanted people would talk about it even more, stirring up even more controversy. As long as the paper didn’t go to the length of offending people, they would sell lots of subscriptions. Could this be why blogging has shot to the moon while traditional media has fallen flat? I’ll let you decide that for yourself.

(Picture thanks to Get Clippings)

Popularity: 18% [?]

The other day at the store I came across a package of SUMSEEDS Energized Sunflower Seeds. These seeds are infused with the same components as most of the energy drinks currently on the market. This caught my eye since it is no secret that I do like my caffeine… speaking of which I need to refill my cup… ok now back to sunflower seeds.

I have heard about SUMSEEDS before, but I had never seen them in the store. I bought the only bag I could find on the shelf next to all of the regular sunflower seeds with their various flavors. What I had heard was that one serving was roughly the equivalent of one cup of normal coffee as far as caffeine goes. I wasn’t expecting a big rush from these.

The flavor is a bit different for obvious reasons. They are flavored with ginseng, taurine and caffeine. Although it was a different flavor, it didn’t taste bad. Since I normally don’t eat sunflower seeds, this was a nice change or reason to do so. It was a great idea for a sunflower seed company to target a group they probably never have had before, caffeine addicts. Now you can chew on a salty addictive substance and get your caffeine fix at the same time. Bored at the office… SUMSEEDS… On a long road trip… SUMSEEDS… Watching a boring baseball game… SUMSEEDS. From its website you can even order them online just in case your local grocer doesn’t sell them. I have an idea, lets mix these in with the normal seeds at little league games and see what happens. Just Kidding.

In the long run, I can see where these would really come in handy on a long road trip. Stay awake and occupied at the same time. Win-Win. If you like your caffeine and happen across a package of these, I would recommend trying them.

*Don’t forget about the contest for the best business card design for Unconventional Marketing worth $50, you can enter more than once.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Truly successful marketers target people and other businesses that are on the fringe. What is the fringe? The fringe is everywhere the masses aren’t.

When you look at a standard bell curve, you see how it looks like an upside-down U. In marketing you want to market to the people on the edges of the graph. This is where your marketing efforts are rewarded the most and will typically result in higher profit margins. Avoid like the plague that middle 68% of the people. In that area you are competing for the attention of the same consumers as Coca-Cola and Nike. For example, if you are in the market of credit cards, you want to target the people who American Express targets, not the everyday person who is fighting for the typical Visa or MasterCard. Only certain people qualify for an American Express card, but almost anyone can get a Visa or MasterCard.

There are a couple major benefits to targeting the fringe market. First would be the availability for more people to talk about your product or service to others. If everyone knows about you or your product, it will rarely be brought up in conversation because when everyone knows about your product, it is no longer REMARKABLE.

Secondly, targeting the fringe often means you can get into markets that not a lot of people are in. If you don’t have to spend a ton of money advertising, then you can take that money you save from advertising and make your business or service even more remarkable now that it is unconventional. Go the extra mile to make every person feel excited about your product, make them feel treasured by offering a free coupon for their friends or any other thing imaginable to get people talking about you. In most cases, making yourself remarkable will save you more in advertising and result in higher sales than any traditional marketing. So find your fringe market and meet their needs in a way that has never been done before. When you do, the customers will do the advertising for you.

*Don’t forget about the contest for the best business card design for Unconventional Marketing worth $50.

Popularity: 8% [?]