Small business marketing and the ass kicking machine
2September 24, 2007 by Colin
Really. An impressive ass kicking machine. On Craigslist. With a picture.
At the tail end of the description, the machine’s master craftsman has thrown in this pitch:
“Oh and If you need any remodeling done I have 10+ years experience and my own tools.”
There you go: the key to success as a small business. In a field with many similar competitors, identify a quality that separates your services from the pack and promote that quality. Make it real for the consumer.
Here in Canada, we have a guy who has built a reputation as an expert in ass kicking AND renovation: Mike Holmes.
[tags] renovation, ass kicking, promotion, Mike Holmes [/tags]
Just FYI, the actual creators and constructors of the pictured contraption were some MIT folk back in 2004, and the image was taken from here:
http://www.mit.edu/~amrys/photo/badideas/badideas-Pages/Image4.html
If you liked it, there are more photos here:
http://www.mit.edu/~amrys/photo/badideas/badideas.html
and another successful bad idea project here:
http://web.mit.edu/storborg/ddf/
Enjoy!
Wow. Thanks. Then this really is an example of small business marketing – ripping off ideas, tag lines and even photography, all the while counting on distance and regional variations to “protect” them from accusations of plagiarism and theft.
For most local consumers, they only take away the first impression from the sales or marketing pitch – they don’t think of the veracity of the pitch.