Stunt or Trend? So What?

Do you remember this little ditty from a few days ago?

When I talk about low cost customer acquisition strategies, this is exactly what I am talking about.

Remember, last Christmas Nordstrom Rack made news for selling an $85 brick. So obviously, somebody is trying some sort of strategy to garner attention.

Mainstream Media and Trade Journals need something to talk about - they only attract advertisers when they attract eyeballs, and they don't attract eyeballs by being boring. So this kind of stunt is like catnip for those folks.

Many professionals (especially those who advocate emptying the company coffers for Google/Facebook) aren't fans of this marketing tactic. That's fine. But no complaints when it becomes too expensive to advertise in either channel, and no complains when response falls off in either channel. You made your bed.

Here's another thing readers don't like. When I suggest that this requires a Marketing / Merchandising partnership, I get the eye rolls. "Merchants don't let us do anything, they're stupid and bossy and they think we are idiots." Try making a merchant look good, and you'll be surprised how they respond to you. Modern marketers spend more time with vendors than they spend with merchants. It wasn't always like that.

Google and Facebook have been using us for a decade. And Amazon / Echo are about to judge how you look (click here). How are we going to compete against a device that tells us we look terrible and then ships us an alternative outfit within one to forty-eight hours while simultaneously generating traffic that Google / Facebook re-directs to their preferred partners?

We need to work hard on developing low-cost / no-cost customer acquisition programs. I know you don't want to hear this, and I know many of you disagree. How is your current strategy working for you?