“Need Inspiration? Try Looking Outside Your Industry” by Cheri Nikkel
Are you searching for the right approach for your next piece of copy?
Most of us start by reviewing the previous marketing material. Then we study what the competition is doing. It’s always important to know what’s working in your industry right now.
But don’t stop there.
Take the time to study what’s going on OUTSIDE your industry. Some of the most successful marketing campaigns were developed by doing just that.
Here’s an example…
Subway (the sandwich franchise) doesn’t compete head to head with their competition. Instead, they’ve taken a different approach. They created a whole ad campaign around “Jared” - a customer who had lost an amazing amount of weight on a diet of Subway’s low fat sandwiches. We see before & after pictures. We hear how good the food tastes. And more important, we’re told how easy it was!
Where did Subway find this “concept”?
My guess is Nutri-System. A diet program that provides healthy low-calorie meals for people who want to lose weight the easy way. Their ads are filled with before and after photos. They include personal stories. And they show how you, too can lose all the weight you want by simply substituting your meals with theirs.
By using a concept new to their industry, Subway was able to position themselves as the “healthy” choice in fast food.
There are countless opportunities around us for inspiration. Keep your eyes open for concepts or approaches that are working in other industries. When you find one, stop and think for a minute. Strip it down to it’s core. Is there a way you can take that concept, adapt it, and use it in your industry?
Just imagine how using this one technique successfully could allow you to dominate an industry, almost overnight!
Subway’s “Jared” campaign is just one example of a concept “jumping” from one industry to another - from the diet industry to the fast food industry. Can you think of any others?
Comment by Ethan Kap
January 17, 2007 @ 7:46 pm
I beleive this to be true. So many people try to “reinvent” the wheel, when all they have to do is look someone else who has already done it.
Most marketing examples, if not all have been done before in some industry.
For example, I work with retailers and many of them believe they cannot put in membership or continuity programs for back end income.
Well…
they are wrong.
I am taking a concept that is being in done in other industries and applying it to my industry and one of my clients is projecting to double his income by just putting in a membership program — In a retail industry nonetheless.
Ethan Kap