SugarBee Apples

I really enjoy Sprint Car Racing ... toss Weather / Pickleball / Sprint Car Racing / Headphones / Food into any day and I'm generally in a good place.

When one of the two big 410 Sprint Car Series come to Central Arizona, yeah, I'm in. My favorite driver is named Rico Abreu - the most popular driver out there.

He was the champion of this series last year, and is the obvious crowd favorite ... young and old alike. There were many young ladies and boys around his car looking to meet him after the event, wearing his merch.

You don't run a race team without $$$. Lots of $$$. One of Rico's sponsors is SugarBee Apples from Washington State (click here). How do I know this? They're not prominently featured on his car, so they must be doing something else.

Well, they have the SugarBee mascot ... who had to be BOILING on Saturday night (race time temperature was 103 degrees when I arrived) ... featured here on FloRacing's broadcast of the event ... which means, of course, that not just the people at the event are hearing about SugarBee.

SugarBee did something else ... they had free apples. If you went to Rico's merch trailer (where his wife was making $30 every thirty seconds selling merch, plus you got to meet Rico's dog Gus), you were instructed to take a free SugarBee apple ... packaged in a teeny tiny adorable carrying case.

Once word got out that you could get a free apple, there were free apples everywhere. Where I sat, maybe five people were eating a free apple at the same time. The apples looked like those yummy Honeycrisp apples to my eyes ... turns out they are half Honeycrisp / half unknown variety.

All sorts of cross promotion as well.

• Rico at the Safeway in Queen Creek handing out apples.
• Press Releases ... including a quote from a long-time MineThatData follower and Chief Marketing Officer.

Why bring this up?

One of the most common questions I receive is this question?

• "How do I find new customers? Old school methods have dried up, and digital marketing is too expensive and opaque. Do you have examples of new customer acquisition techniques that other companies execute, examples that work?"

I hate the end of the sentence ... if you're only willing to do things that work, you're not going to be in business in a few years.

Do you think SugarBee have a guarantee that handing out a thousand apples in adorable carrying cases paired with a mascot sweating in 103 degree heat will "work"?

But there they are, doing the hard work. In person.

Creating awareness.

Reaching prospects.

Encouraging customers to go to Trader Joes or Safeway to get their apples.

I'm not saying you should hand out free widgets at an event you think is beneath your sophisticated brand.

I'm saying you should do something. You ask for examples. I just gave you an example. What is a parallel for your business, one that is brand appropriate? What stops you from executing a similar strategy that is brand appropriate?

P.S.: SugarBee has other marketing programs.

• 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
• A Hispanic Recipe Book.
• An E-Book.
• Adopt a Tree Workbook.