unique Ways ...

[Hayley_Cbb]

I am currently trying to come up with UNIQUE ways of marketing, i have come to the conclusion that cold calling, mail shots etc.. are not working for me.

I was hoping that maybe some CREATIVE person can help me come up with an effective way of marketing for my specific product.

I work in the packaging industry, we supply B2B & also for personal use such as moving house kits etc.

We sell to takeaway companies, florists, craft dealers, & also large distributors.

I know who i have got to target i just don't quite know an more effective way of doing it?

Anyone got any ideas?

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

I am currently trying to come up with UNIQUE ways of marketing, i have come to the conclusion that cold calling, mail shots etc.. are not working for me.

I was hoping that maybe some CREATIVE person can help me come up with an effective way of marketing for my specific product.

I work in the packaging industry, we supply B2B & also for personal use such as moving house kits etc.

We sell to takeaway companies, florists, craft dealers, & also large distributors.

I know who i have got to target i just don't quite know an more effective way of doing it?

Anyone got any ideas?




The reason some marketing ideas are unique is because they don't work, so no one uses them.

Of course you can come up with creative gimmicks to grab attention, but calling, mail shots and any of the other common marketing methods are very likely to work. The problem is, they're rarely utilised properly. What you write on a sales letter can easily mean the difference between dozens of new clients and absolutely none. Copy might look good to you, but from a professional sales perspective, it might be naff.

Packaging is a rather mundane product, so you will be hard pushed to find any creative gimmick which will sell. You just need to hit prospects with the proper sales messages and benefits. You need some sort of USP which will make them use you, otherwise they will just go elsewhere. They don't care about fancy gimmicks; they just want cheap B2B packaging with a good service.

[yankee candleman]

I use carrier bags, paper bags, various forms of wrap and boxes and the only two things I am interested in is quality and price.

Any other form of marketing, you are wasting your time with the likes of me.

[Roytheartist]

Ok I am maybe not too qualified in Business, but I am creative! Focus on the moving house kits, (for my idea). Now, stay with me on this... For many years I have been a hobyist 3d animator, although I dont tend to do it now. Blender3d is a free prog used by thousands of talented people across the world. If you can offer a 'bounty' for a 30 sec to 1 minute humerous short. Post it on the blender forums. Be honest about what you need, you may be surprised at the response. Then you have a video to post on youtube and other video sites, or ask the creator to assist you. It is also important to allow the creator to use it in his/her 'showreel' as an example of their commercial work. It is about creating dialogue and cross pollination into another discipline! Hope this helps!

Roy.

one of the main blender artists forums http://blenderartists.org/forum/
The main blender site http://www.blender.org/

[eventdomain]

Unique marketing secrets don't exist. If they did, would have been copied and be all over the web by now :D

Why is Google so successful? they certainly weren't the first search tool that got invented, so why?

Bcos they:

A. Got an investor in early

B. Had a brilliant viral idea in the toolbar

c. Set up a unique advertising service in Adwords

d. Capitalised on it using yet another viral idea

and they had a nice bit of cash to work with eg: £50'000


It takes idea, money and timing. Like the elements of fire, you remove one of those and you're looking at failure.

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

Unique marketing secrets don't exist. If they did, would have been copied and be all over the web by now :D

Why is Google so successful? they certainly weren't the first search tool that got invented, so why?

Bcos they:

A. Got an investor in early

B. Had a brilliant viral idea in the toolbar

c. Set up a unique advertising service in Adwords

d. Capitalised on it using yet another viral idea

and they had a nice bit of cash to work with eg: £50'000


It takes idea, money and timing. Like the elements of fire, you remove one of those and you're looking at failure.

I think the main reason is that they took an idea and improved it. Simple as that. Myspace was the major social networking site at one point, but Facebook have came along with an identical service, improved it, and now they're flying much higher.

The factors you mentioned also play a part as well of course.

[eventdomain]

Yup, but Facebook & Myspace are set, I doubt a third will penetrate the market - its kind of over eg: media have done the social website thing, so it won't work again for someone else, like it did for the top two.

Unless, maybe a niche version of the networking portal or something.

My motto is - If you can't beat them, think of something else. But whatever it is, it must be special to prise loyalty away from the top guns.

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

Yup, but Facebook & Myspace are set, I doubt a third will penetrate the market - its kind of over eg: media have done the social website thing, so it won't work again for someone else, like it did for the top two.

Unless, maybe a niche version of the networking portal or something.

My motto is - If you can't beat them, think of something else. But whatever it is, it must be special to prise loyalty away from the top guns.

Depends how far we look into 'improving' really. Other search engines were decent, but Google have improved to the stage where they can't be any better (only marginally if anything). The lay-out is as simple and easy as it's going to get, and the search features are top notch. They've improved the concept to a point where it's now impossible for any other company to make MASSIVE improvements, which is required for something like this.

Likewise, Myspace had some good features, yet some large flaws. Facebook have strolled in with a service which would be difficult to beat marginally and impossible to improve on drastically. I can count 100+ things Facebook have done MUCH better than Myspace. Now, if you use both sites, you will see that Myspace has copied much of what Facebook has done already. Myspace have lost.

If a business tries to make a few small improvements on an existing service, they're going to get nowhere. To improve an existing service and gain major market shares the changes, ideas and improvements really have to be something special.

[Cartoon Logos]

Hayley, where's your website?

With a decent website and SEO friendly content that could be all the marketing you need and an eBay shop. Lots of people pass that way for packaging these days.

People need boxes, so they look for them,

You need to be THERE when they start looking.

Leah

[XanderMarketing]

Hi Hayley,

I used to do some marketing for a packaging company, we did email marketing and it did generate leads for the company. How about using gimmicks like innovative boxes or running a competition to win a 'box' at a sports ground?

If you want something really innovative this link may help: http://www.bootstrappingblog.com/50-guerrilla-marketing-tactics-you-should-be-using

If you want to do direct mail more creatively and also track responses you may be interested in PURLs. I wrote a blog on the subject just last week which you may be interested in: http://www.xandermarketing.com/index.php/general/personalised-urls-purls-why-they-are-revolutionising-direct-marketing/

Alex