What we can learn about marketing from a 7 year old

by Jon Ray on Mar 02 in Marketing, PR

What can we learn about marketing from a group of 7-year olds?
I was driving out of my neighborhood in Austin, TX yesterday when I stumbled upon a group of young entrepreneurs with a sign reading, “The Best Lemonade in Austin!”

Wow! The BEST lemonade? That was an offer that I couldn’t refuse. I pulled over and was enthusiastically greeted by the three marketing moguls. “Hello, sir! How are you today?”

What wonderful customer service, I thought. I said that I was having a wonderful day and that’s when the older of the three (7 and a half) gave me their pitch. “Today we have lemonade and cookies, each for a quarter and if you buy both you get a basketball card.” His female business partner chimed in, “The cookies are delicious!” She spoke with such genuine enthusiasm, I couldn’t resist. In the end I walked away with a cup of lemonade, a cookie and a Fleer, Marvin Williams, basketball card. As I approached my car the third kid shouted to me, “Thanks! Tell your friends!”

Once back in the car, I took a sip of the lemonade…DELICIOUS! I bit into the cookie…soft oatmeal, raisin, chocolate chip greatness! I was thrilled with my purchase. This really was the “Best Lemonade in Austin.” There was no buyers’ remorse in sight. I immediately texted five friends that lived in the area and told them to be sure and stop by the lemonade stand if they were out and about in the neighborhood. As I drove off, I saw more cars drive up to the stand. These kids were creating a buying frenzy!

So here’s the five marketing secrets that we learned:

• Create Perceived Value. Perceived Value is the difference between a sign that reads, “Lemonade” and “The Best Lemonade in Austin!”
• Customer Service is key. You might be able to get them in the door, but if they don’t feel comfortable once they are there, it will be hard to close the sale.
• Stand behind your product. Create an intimate relationship with your product and then get excited about it. Enthusiasm sells and if you’re excited about your product, that excitement will begin to spread.
• Make your product great. All the advertising in the world is not going to help you if you have an inferior product. Before you spend money advertising your company, spend money making sure your product is great.
• Ask for referrals. If you’ve been successful in implementing the above four strategies, you won’t even have to ask for referrals, but it never hurts. Your customer will be much more likely to tell people about your company if you just ask them to do so.

So, there you have it. Five marketing strategies to bring more business to your company from a group of clever 7-year olds. And all is cost was 75-cents (plus a hefty cash tip for the good advice).

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