marketing

Why I Fired my Marketing Director for Thinking Small!

In Blog by Arthur GreenoLeave a Comment

Years ago, I hired a Marketing Director that interviewed well, but when it came time to execute, she was boring, and although she was pleasant she was a small thinker, so I promoted her to customer (AKA fired her.)

Want me to eat something weird? Then KEEP reading!

When executing marketing, I have learned a few key directives:

Make it remarkably fun

Let’s think about all the commercials that we see on a regular basis. If the commercial is just informational you don’t remember it, right?  Have you seen or heard any of the cow commercials from Chick-fil-A? We may not remember the details, but we remember that there was a cow, it was telling us to eat more chicken, and it was hilarious! Get the point? Anytime I’m trying to tackle a marketing project I want to make sure that not only is it fun, but also it’s a “kind of fun” that people will remark about. Take a normal thing, and do what you need to do make it unique, something neat, fun and exciting. Do what I do…remove everything that sucks about it, and have fun!

Brainstorming for Marketing

This may be hard for a select few so let’s break it down. Think of what you’re trying to pull off, and remove any obstacles. Money, resources, staff, everything. Take that thing and think “if I was to see this, and it was super cool, what would it look like?” Next, brainstorm on it.  Just start throwing ideas up there. Believe it or not, my 6-foot tall, 191-gallon milkshake we did in 2007 was thrown out as a joke! Then when we came back to it, we realized the potential. NO ideas are wrong. Many of my fears were born laughing about how it could not be done.

Diagnose the Pitfalls

In the case of the milkshake, the pitfall was the money we needed to make the product and a 6 foot tall cup!  We started tackling them one at a time. We thought to ourselves, “a no is not a no until were told no” so we assumed everything was a yes. Once we looked at the pitfalls, then we hit them hard. We solved the money issue when I called the shake manufacturers and told them what we are doing and they gave us the product free! Yes, free!  We solved the 6-foot cup by continuing to research and find a fiberglass company to make the cup. Don’t create your own obstacles; they will surface on their own with out you needing to make them up. Assume everything is a yes.

RAMP IT UP

Once you got it done, how will you make it awesome? Go back to brainstorming, and if you’re short of brainpower, go to  social media.  A couple of years ago, I was trying to create some fun pens, I put it out on Facebook for answers and received 111 responses. The one I chose says, “There was a 10% chance this pen was up someone’s nose!” This is not as hard as you think, and don’t put limitations on it. You will run into hurdles, but don’t let them define your project. RAMP IT UP.

This is the last week of our Breakfast contest so let’s have some fun.

Anyone that orders 10 breakfast entrees from me this week will get a free pen that says, “there is a 10% chance this was up someone’s nose.” ~Arthur Greeno

Anyone that orders 20 Breakfast entrees will get a free copy of my book, Breaking Conformity. 

Anyone that orders 50 breakfast entrees this week will get a Chick-fil-A t-shirt, and one of my books.

Anyone that orders 100 breakfast entrees this week will get lunch with me at Chick-fil-A and I will brainstorm with you on a project of your choice. (Better watch out!)

Anyone that orders 200 or more and I will take you to Fuji Sushi Bar in Tulsa for lunch, and you can order me the weirdest thing, and I will eat it without throwing up!!

Help me win this contest! Call me (918) 461-0777 to place an order!

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