Don’t be a zombie who follows the pack, be a kick-ass gunslinger who saves the world from zombies. (Quick Nerd Moment: Love zombie movies and their cousin, the zombie movie analogy!)
Alright, back to business! Marketing and branding can be a nerve-wracking task, do it right and you have a successful business on your hands, mess it up well, you know what happens, you get roasted for lunch. Below are some pretty stellar tips that I learned about marketing from watching WAY too many zombie movies.
Zombie Movie: Don’t Separate Yourself From the Pack!
Marketing: Do Separate Yourself from the pack!
While separating yourself from the pack in a zombie apocalypse might turn you into instant lunch meat, doing this in reality world can save your business. Customers want to work with companies that they trust, and the best way to build trust is to be authentic and showcase what makes you different. There are TONS of inspiration blogs out there, but how many do you know feature a quirky smartass who complains and whines about not having a full-time job, but can still shoot out philosophical insights like no ones business? Yea, didn’t think so. Why do you think slimy salesman have to work twice as hard as their authentic counterparts? They just breathe distrust! I might not be your typical guru zen master, but I like to say it how it is, and just shoot my observations out, that’s inspiration enough, right?
People, for the most part, are smart. They can tell when someone is telling them the truth or when they are hiding something.
Zombie Movie: Keep all your provisions and stuff to yourself.
Marketing: Sell all your stuff to the public!
Alright, this is where things change-up a bit, in a zombie movie it’s every man (woman) for themselves and a fight for resources. In marketing, you are selling resources. In fact, you want tons of people to purchase your resources. That product/service that you are selling has value, am I right? Then focus on that value! Sell an idea, not a product. You are selling an authentic experience. Think about it.
When I first got my iPhone, I didn’t pick it up because it had the most features or looked pretty. I picked it up because it meant that I could become part of a community. In a zombie movie, being a part of a community (not Woodbury!) means survival. It means that you have other people watching your back, and you are a part of something much bigger that isn’t going to go away anytime soon. That’s priceless.
Zombie Movie: Every group of survivors has a different agenda.
Marketing: You need to find your target market’s agenda and stick to it.
You can get a message a lot further if there is unity and support backing your corporate messaging. You don’t want to say, “We do this.” and then the very next day negate that comment and say,”Oh no, we don’t do that, we do this instead.” You are going to confuse your target market and they’ll move on. Be clear about what you do and who you do it with. A 40-year-old male is not going to be interested in the same things as a 12-year-old girl. In fact, if you try to market yourself to the both of them, you’ll turn them both off! They will be likely to say that,”This isn’t for me this is for_____.”
Ever hear of the phrase that you can’t possibly make everyone happy, and if you try, you’ll go crazy? While there are behemoths out there, that can adhere to a wider target market, they are behemoths, and thus have tons of smaller companies beneath them that can put the energy and focus on a certain target market. Focus your energies on your messaging and who will vibe with it the most, it’s the quickest way to pump up sales with the least minimum headache.
Remember, zombies don’t like headaches, it doesn’t taste as good!
Best of Love!
