Mind Your Own Brand | STARTUPS
Everyone is a Winner! How
‘BOUT IT FOLKS by Dave Lubelczyk
Each year when the carnival rolls into town I am reminded of a job I had which taught me a valuable marketing lesson. One summer, I spent a week working as a hawker in a carnival dart booth. For seven days I yelled phrases like “One in you win” and “Prize every time”, but these marketing campaigns often fell short. During that week I learned how valuable a personal connection with the customer can be, as well as the effect that connection has on the success of a marketing message. This story begins many years prior to that summer. Debbie was not your typical carnie; she was more like your mom and in later years your grandmother. She stood out as very different from the others. She was clean, neat, and sweet, all of which are very rare traits for a carnival worker. She made you feel at home at her booth. Debbie would talk to you like a person and would engage you in conversation, building a relationship with you. As RPKZ ^L ^V\SK HS^H`Z THRL OLY IVV[O V\Y ÄYZ[ Z[VW H[ [OL MHPY She would remember us ask us about how school went that year and inquire if we were still dating “so and so”. She remembered little details about our lives and truly cared about us as people not just dollar bills. Because she took the time to get to know us, we rewarded her with our loyalty. We would only play her games and we would bring new friends to her booth every year. One year when I was in college, I stopped by her booth on the ÄYZ[ KH` VM [OL MHPY +LIIPL HWWLHYLK H SP[[SL MYHaaSLK :OL OHK lost one of her workers and was in need of a third person to join her and “Mouse” in the booth that week. I asked if I could help and she promptly hired me to join her team. Within moments I donned the blue shirt and stepped into the far end of her booth next to “Mouse”. “Mouse” spoke little to me because he was paid on commission and my presence meant he would have fewer opportunities for making money. He was your typical carnie; dirty, greasy and downright scary. Ironically, he now stuck out like a sore thumb between the sweet grandmother and the clean cut college guy.
With the little training I received, I was unsure how to market this product so I copied the messages I was hearing around me. “One PU `V\ ^PU OV^ ºIV\[ P[ MVSRZ&¹ ;OLU 0 [YPLK [V ZLSS [OL ILULÄ[Z of the product. “Winner, Winner, Winner, everyone’s a Winner!” This generic marketing was not working so I tried a one-to-one strategy “Hey sir, how ‘bout winning a prize for your little lady!” The more I said this stuff the more I knew these messages sucked. I looked over at my co-worker and saw two very different set of results. Mouse was using the same messages and strategies as me and he was having the same poor results. Debbie on the other hand was leveraging her relationships and had a line of people throwing darts. I was getting very frustrated until things took a turn. The fair started [V ÄSS \W MVY [OL UPNO[ ^P[O WLVWSL I\[ UV[ Q\Z[ HU` WLVWSL" [OL` ^LYL people I knew. This was my home town and the people coming in were my friends, family, and neighbors. I didn’t need to use corny marketing lines to attract their attention. I could call them by name and that is exactly what I did. Soon I had my own line of people wanting to play “Dave’s dart game”. Then they began to bring
I learned how valuable a personal connection with the customer can be others over to “see what Dave is doing”. I soon had a line as long as Debbie’s and dollars were rolling in. I was selling circles around veteran hawker “Mouse” and by day two he was moved to Debbie’s other booth being told that “Dave can handle things by himself”. Due to my stellar sales performance, I was asked to “go on the road” with them but I declined the offer knowing that the only reason I was so good this time was the personal relationships I had in this town. In any other town I would just be that generic sales guy trying to pry dollars from skeptical customers’ pockets. The lesson of “my week as a carnie” is that people buy from people they know and like. The stronger your relationship with the prospect, the more likely they will buy from `V\ :V NV V\[ HUK I\PSK YLSH[PVUZOPWZ ÄYZ[ because if you do everyone is a winner! How ‘bout it folks?
Dave Lubelczyk Image Identity | imageidentity.com
www.risbj.com | ]VS\TL VUL PZZ\L Ä]L
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