A Quick Tale of Ceramic Cats and Marketing Genius
from fellow maverick, Debbie…

“We’re going to get up early in the morning and drive 3 hours to buy a ceramic cat.”

Doctors in Japan are kept way too busy, and I was asking a young heart specialist and his wife what they were going to do on their precious Sunday off.

I was blown away as the explanation unfolded. It turns out there’s a marketing genius and his wife who live far up in the mountains, and make simple ceramic cats for a living. The cats are a Japanese tradition called “manekineko.” They have one paw up, beckoning, and are supposed to bring good luck.

The artist has come up with a cute story that makes the cats attractive. He claims he was meditating in the forest one day when he found a piece of wood that looked like a cat. He brought it home, and had several turns of good fortune. This led him to the decision to show his gratitude by spending his life making cats.

That’s not enough to make my doctor friend rush out of the house at the first light of dawn, though. There’s more. Much more.

The artist has designed five different styles of these silly cats, and makes just enough to sell only 20 a day. He opens the shop at 10 o’clock sharp each morning, and lets everyone who has arrived on time participate in a drawing. The lucky customer who drew number one is allowed to choose a cat first, and so it goes for the first 20 people. The rest are sent home empty handed.

The whole process takes less than an hour, at which time the marketing genius closes up the store and goes home to relax - and make more cats if he happens to be running low.

The result? Scores of anxious customers arrive every morning from all over Japan for a chance to get their lucky cat. If they don’t succeed, they vow to try again another day. Many of them return over and over until they’ve collected all five varieties.

I bet if he had simply opened up shop in a tradition manner, he would have sat there all day waiting for a stray customer to wander in, and rejoiced when he had a five cat day. He would probably have had to settle for a much lower price, too.

Think about it. How many of this marketing genius’ tactics could you apply to your internet marketing campaign? He used an interesting story, scarcity, superstition, a fun game, word of mouth, and an appeal to the collector in all of us.

I bet you’re promoting something more useful than lucky ceramic cats, so you already have an advantage. The next step is to brainstorm ways to succeed more with less effort.

Let me know what you come up with!

“OK, let me start off by saying this Nissan Xterra is only available for purchase by the manliest of men (or women). My friend, if it was possible for a vehicle to sprout chest hair and a five o’clock shadow, this Nissan would look like Tom Selleck. It is just that manly.

It was never intended to drive to the mall so you can pick up that adorable shirt at Abercrombie & Fitch that you had your eye on. It wasn’t meant to transport you to yoga class or Linens & Things. No, that’s what your Prius is for. If that’s the kind of car you’re looking for, then just do us all a favor and stop reading right now. I mean it. Just stop.

This car was engineered by 3rd degree ninja super-warriors in the highest mountains of Japan to serve the needs of the man that cheats death on a d a ily basis. They didn’t even consider superfluous nancy boy amenities like navigation systems (real men don’t get lost), heated leather seats (a real man doesn’t let anything warm his butt), or On Star (real men don’t even know what the hell On Star is).

No, this brute comes with the things us testosterone-fueled super action junkies need. It has a 265 HP engine to outrun the cops. It’s got special blood/gore resistant upholstery. It even has a first-aid kit in the back. You know what the first aid kit has in it? A pint of whiskey, a stitch-your-own-wound kit

and a hunk of leather to bite down on when you’re operating on yourself. The Xterra also has an automatic transmission so if you’re being chased by Libyan terrorists, you’ll still be able to shoot your machine gun out the window and drive at the same time.

It’s saved my bacon more than once.

It has room for you and the four hotties you picked up on the way to the gym to blast your pecs and hammer your glutes. There’s a tow hitch to pull your 50 caliber anti-Taliban, self cooling machine gun. I also just put in a new windshield to replace the one that got shot out by The Man.

My price on this bad boy is an incredibly low $12,900, but I’ll entertain reasonable offers. And by reasonable, I mean don’t walk up and tell me you’ll give me $5,000 for it. That’s liable to earn you a Burmese-roundhouse-sphincter-kick with a follow up three fingered eye-jab. Would it hurt? Hell yeah. Let’s just say you won’t be the prettiest guy at the Coldplay concert anymore.

There’s only 69,000 miles on this four-wheeled hellcat from Planet Kickass. Trust me, it will outlive you and the offspring that will carry your name. It will live on as a monument to your machismo.

Now, go look in the mirror and tell me what you see. If it’s a rugged, no holds barred, super brute he-man macho Chuck Norris stunt double, then contact me. I might be out hang-gliding or BASE jumping or just chilling with my ladies, but I’ll get back to you. And when I do, we’ll talk about a price over a nice glass of Schmidt while we listen to Johnny Cash.

To sweeten the deal a little, I’m throwing in this pair of MC Hammer pants for the man with rippling quads that can’t fit into regular pants. Yeah, you heard me. FREE MC Hammer pants.
Rock on”.

A maverick example of copywriting indeed… however, there is one key piece missing from his “sales letter”, can you spot what it is?

- Ken

How could I be so naive? I thought being a marketing maverick meant I’m immune to the “mind-control-join-a-cult-buy-my-product” influence.

What about your potential customers? Will the mind control marketing methods from your competitors trump yours?

It’s happening. You can deny it or say it’s “manipulation”… but you can’t argue with the results: MORE SALES.

This lays it all out on the table. Beware. It might work on you too.

Download it here.

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Is your marketing boring? Or are you taking the time to put personality in your marketing?

What can you do to narrowly define your target audience?

As you know, your marketing can’t be all things to all people. Don’t be afraid to offend people who would never be your customers in the first place. Think polarization.

Well, they don’t actually pay, the advertisers do.  They just have to listen to a 10 second audio ad before they get connected.

It’s brand new and you’ll want to get this from Brring.com

Here’s how it works…

You get a free number from Brring.com  and point it to your real number.

You then tell everyone you know about your new number and when they call you, you get paid!  How much?  Well, it won’t make you rich… but you’ll get between 5 cents to a $1 for each call.

Time to get creative here…

Use it when you sign up for mailing lists or promotions… you finally get paid when telemarketers call!

Use it anytime you place an ad… you’ll at least get paid even if they don’t buy anything from you!

And if you’re wondering… you don’t actually have to answer the call to get paid!  As long as the caller listens to the ad, you’ll get credit.

Is this a WIN/WIN deal?

It’s to early to tell, it depends on the advertiser.  It’s always a numbers game.

Test it out, mine is 804-200-5698, give me a call and see for yourself.

Get your new Brring number and get paid anytime someone calls! 

You too can use the power of a blue ball to break through the clutter and make more sales! Check out www.SendABall.com for more details!

MidlothiansDirtyLittleSecret.com

“Soon Everyone Will Know!”

Wow!

Talk about the curiosity factor. I immediately asked my wife if she knew anything about this. She had no idea, but that was the first website we went to when we jumped online.

You won’t believe who this pre-launch is for…

MidlothiansDirtyLittleSecret.com

(by the way, Midlothian is the town we live in…)

Here’s the Marketing Maverick lesson:

1) Use curiosity. It really does work, especially for a broad market like this example.

2) Use offline promotions to get people online to deliver your message. The power of postcards break through the clutter of emails and really stands out to your customer.

An easy way to test an offline campaign is to use a company like www.SendOutCards.com to automate your mailing and see your sales explode!

Now everyone will know YOUR DIRTY LITTLE SECRET OF SUCCESS!