Not long ago, I took my kids to a county fair, here in Ohio. It was a large fair with a lot to do. My kids had a blast. As we walked through the fair, I began to hear an advertisement playing over the loud speakers. The advertisement offered us an opportunity to see Myrna the Mermaid. Myrna is part human, part mermaid and lives in a little gold fish bowl.
The price was only $1.00. So I slapped $4 down for my family to see Myrna. I did it because I thought it would be great to write about in my blog. My wife thought I was the dumbest guy in the place.
She might be right. There definitely wasn’t a line to see Myrna. In fact, I might have been the only sucker for the entire day.
After we paid to see Myrna, we were ushered up some steps and told to peek through this little window. To my surprise, we saw a little mermaid sitting in a fish bowl waving to us. She waved every time we peeked in at her. I couldn’t figure out how they pulled the trick off. It must have been some kind of reflection projected onto the fish bowl. But it really doesn’t matter.
Why not?
Because the marketing was fantastic.
After we left Myrna, we started hearing another message on the loudspeakers, this time for The Amazing Gorilla Girl.
It was $2 each to see the Amazing Gorilla Girl, but my wife absolutely refused to go to this attraction. She still couldn’t believe we saw the mermaid. Too bad; I really wanted to check out the gorilla girl.
The marketing for Gorilla Girl was outstanding, too. “See her change right before your eyes!” “Beautiful Girl.” “Terrifying Gorilla!” It reminded me of P.T. Barnum, the legendary showman. I read a Barnum biography years ago, and it was very instructive.
The speakers surrounding the Amazing Gorilla blared comments such as: “Don’t enter if you have a history of fainting.” Don’t enter if you are pregnant.” This was awesome stuff! Every single phrase they said made me want to see her more.
I had no idea that I was going to get such a powerful marketing lesson at this fair. Maybe now I can write off all of the money I spent throughout the day.
The lesson is that you must get the attention of your prospects. I’m sure everyone at the fair heard about the Amazing Gorilla Girl, but I’m not sure how many paid to see her.
Does everyone in your market know about you? If not, how come?
Unless you have no competition in your area, you have to find a way for your marketing to stand out from the rest. You can have the best service around, even a compelling message in your marketing, but if you don’t first get people’s attention, it won’t matter.
You have to have a mermaid.