I am going to just throw out a few different marketing queries I have received to this blog and then reply as quickly as I can with marketing ideas. All of these are terms people have searched and found their way to my blog. I can’t promise that they found what they were looking for, although I hope they did. Just in case, here are my different marketing ideas for a variety of different areas.

Marketing an apartment building

Give away an iPhone to each unit with a sign out front saying so.

Blog Marketing Ideas

Build or join a blog network, provide something valuable for free.

Beer Marketing Techniques

Give it away and sell the cups

Drive-thru coffee marketing ideas

Make a fast lane for $1 refills. Better yet, make it automatic with an RFID reader so people can get refills anytime day or night.

Food bank Marketing Ideas

Electronic billboards in highly trafficked areas with a thermometer style display showing food levels.

Gas station marketing ideas

Bring back full-service at no extra cost.

Grocery store marketing strategies

http://www.stservicemovie.com/

Halloween marketing ideas real estate

Turn the listed homes into haunted houses.

Marketing strategies for newspapers

Create a new Onion.com or go 100% digital with lots of features like mobile, email and RSS.

Movie theater marketing ideas

Convert the movie theater into a restaurant and don’t charge extra for the movie.

This reminds me of the Shock and Awe campaign of the second Gulf War. Did that actually succeed or fail? I am not really sure. But anyway, it does truly shock me at how quickly we could transform a whole country with a few high-powered explosives. In the marketing world, that shock and awe would be a keynote speech by Steve Jobs of Apple.

Apple seems to have the ability to keep the lid on upcoming projects so well that when projects are launched, people are blown away by what is unveiled (pardon the pun).

But is it sustainable to keep shocking the same audience over and over again? Or do they come to expect it and grow numb to the antics.

Ultimately, I think that being original and interesting is far better. Yesterday, I wrote a post about something that I discombobulated with. Discombobulated is a word I always look forward to using in a sentence. That post was probably a lot more interesting to read than the normal mumble jumble I usually publish.

Could it be that I have been going against my own advice and writing to the middle ground, the boring area? Did I start writing to the middle where the majority is, and not to the fridge that I so often recommend? Why on earth would I do THIS!? Mediocrity is to blame. It took over, and the blog became dull. Maybe it was never exciting to begin with. AHA! Insert theme music from 2001 Space Odyssey here.

So with that in mind. I will try my best not to run a shock and awe campaign but to write the way I would for myself. I hope you all can be entertained and learn something at the same time. Because marketing should be fun, where else can you tell a story and get paid this well?

It’s no secret that Dyson vacuums do a great job of sucking up all of the grit and grime around the house. They are known for never losing any suction power no matter what. They also do many other things like cleaning the air as it passes through and easy dumping of waste. I am sure in due time they will be automated and have dinner waiting when you arrive home from work. Only if it were soon enough.

What Dyson did is over the top for branding, but it is the combination of branding and an excellent product that leads to success. The creators of the Dyson vacuum went above and beyond creating just a vacuum. They created something that was different in its category. The biggest lesson any of us can take away from the success of the Dyson is to know that in a world of similar products and services, it is still possible to set yourself or your product apart from the rest.

In marketing, it is easy to settle for what pays the bills. But what is your goal really? Is it to be mediocre? I know my goal isn’t to be mediocre but sometimes I don’t even realize I am heading that way until I see myself surrounded by more people just like me. That is the reason I quit my last job. I could feel the walls of mediocrity closing in on me and had to make a break for something better.

The same goes for life as in marketing. The thing that sets those in the top 20% from the majority are the ones who get complacent or who settle for what is working. You ever wonder why there are always a few Realtors in town who sell the majority of the houses? How about the sales person driving the Corvette in a town full of sales people? What about the gas station across the street that gets 40% more business?

I have no doubt that the creators of the Dyson vacuum are going to keep innovating and finding new ways to break the mold of the traditional. I hear they are even creating a new bathroom hand dryer, thank god. The key to marketing and branding is to create something that is different in the world of the same. How can you take what you have and mold it into a product or service that goes above and beyond, to the far right, to the far left, the most color, twisted, unique, useful, creative in your market? I am sure with a little thought and effort it will begin to take shape into something people crave and desire.

Welcome to TEABERRY Fargo! As some of you know, I write to you primarily from Fargo, North Dakota, and like to share some marketing ideas I can easily take pictures of. This brings us back to TEABERRY in downtown Fargo.

If you aren’t familiar with Fargo, during the winter it gets very VERY cool here. As you would expect, coffee is quite the staple drink for about 6 months of the year out of the necessity of staying warm. What Fargo doesn’t have is a lot of varieties of tea outside of Starbucks or Dunn Bros. Some astute people felt that not everyone likes coffee but still like to share in the experience of those delirious hot and cold beverages, so they created TEABERRY.

TEABERRY is owned and operated by a man named Trung. He was quite busy when I stopped by so I only got a few words (that’s a good sign for a new business). By my estimate, they have about 40+ different flavors of tea and hundreds of possible combination of different flavors by adding jelly (basically a jelly bean added for a different flavor) or pearls (like a taffy that adds a little kick of sugar). My favorite tea so far has been the Aloe Vera. You can taste the chunks of aloe along with some amazing bursts of other fruit flavors such as strawberries, orange and lemon. It is quite the combination. I also hear they do serve one type of Vietnamese coffee that is super strong and dark as night. I will have to try it sometime.

The beauty of the whole TEABERRY idea is the simplicity of the idea and providing something to people that doesn’t currently exist. What a concept! Never forget that it is OK to be the only one in town, or in your niche that is doing what you are doing. When you are the only one around, people will naturally refer others to you. A while back I was looking to have some engraving work done on something other than jewelry and ended up at a very nice trophy shop at the suggestion of the jeweler. It worked out very well for me and I am pretty sure there can only be 1-2 of these in town to begin with.

Cheers!