I was at a wedding recently , and may or may not have had a few too many glasses of cheap, free, “in-speech champagne”! Sitting near the bar and people watching, one of my favourite way’s to spend my time, I realized with increased and probably misguided certainty, that the entire world (well at least the readers of this article) could learn some key marketing lessons from the goings on at a wedding reception.
So, with that behind us, the 5 Marketing Lessons to Learn from a Wedding:
1)Everyone remembers the punch line …no ones remembers the joke! This struck me, suddenly, while watching the entire dance-floor doing The Village People’s perennial classic – The YMCA! Watching from afar I noticed every single person in the room knew the moves, but not a single soul knew the words to the verses of the song (try and remember them now, I dare you! You’ve probably heard it at least 100 times!)
The Marketing Lesson? :Be careful with super creative, ultra sexy campaigns that rely too heavily on the “big idea” at the expense of the core message. Remember the Michael Jackson Thriller FlashMob? Yeah. Remember who the company was that paid a fortune to stage it? Nope, me neither!
2)Everyone dances to a different tune! While watching with a critical eye, the poor wedding DJ struggling to satisfy the vastly different taste’s in music present in one room – he (and I) eventually figured out, that he couldn’t! You simply cant talk one language and appeal to everyone…the dance floor is never, ever full!
The Marketing Lesson? The more you aggregate, the more you alienate. Consumers are not averages, nor are they defined by an LSM. They are individuals with unique tastes, individual opinions and happy and willing to express exactly what they think. Be prepared to be specific!
3) Mutton sometimes dresses as mutton! Fashion and Dress sense, only go so far. You can spot a mile off the guy who is usually dressed in crocs, and rugby jerseys! Irrespective of how their girlfriend dressed them to impress for this one day a year, where closed toed shoes are mandatory, it’s obvious from the outset what is lying just under the starched and steamed surface.
The Marketing Lesson? You simply can’t make a bad idea look and feel good – no matter how much you want to crowbar it into a strategy. Be prepared to take a long hard look at the core ideas that are being sold and turf the bad ones. No amount of smart dressing will make them better, and your clients and the customers will see straight through it
For marketing lessons No. 3 and No. 4, click here.
