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Have You Punked Your Marketing Lately?
May 15, 2007

There is a new "rage" in the Internet world that's called punk marketing.  According to the book, Punk Marketing, by Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons, it's "a new form of marketing that rejects the status quo and recognizes the shift in power from corporations to consumers".  It's taking a different step on how you approach your marketing by being creative from the very beginning -- thinking outside the box and mixing it up.  It used to be easy to reach your potential customers, so says Laermer and Simmons, but today it's nearly impossible to reach them via one advertising medium (TV, radio, newspapers, etc.).  Consumers are now dictating how they want to be targeted, and, if they don't like how they're being marketed to, will simply tell the whole world wide web about it by posting it on blogs, epinion.com, etc. It's a revolution.

They offer 14 "articles of the revolution" or the "manifesto". Here are four with my interpretations:  

1. Avoid Risk and Die. Basically, ensure that you're communicating well with those who are stakeholders in your company and that everyone is on the same page. Those who want to keep things status quo need to evaluate why they're scared and then learn to let go.
2. Ask "Why Not?" Do you believe in everything everyone tells you? Are you not challenging it and bending it to make you feel better instead of accepting it at face value? Shouldn't your marketing message do the same thing for the customer? The book discusses how women accepted the fact that only stick-thin models were effective, but the Dove products changed that with their curvy, everyday women campaign.
3. Take a strong stand about your brand. Don't change it to suit the conversation, the mood, or the weather. If someone put a gun to your head, would you say, "Well, it was my wife's idea" or would you stand true to your mission statement?
4. Give up control. You customers own you and they're bored with tired advertising messages and stupid ads that embarrass their intellect. They yawn, TiVo you away, or turn the page. What would grab your attention? Use that knowledge to design your marketing presence.

   Allow yourself to explore, to invent, to be creatively stimulated in ways you otherwise wouldn't. That's when your best marketing messages will transpire. Take this quiz to see how much you know about advertising and kick start your own advertising revolution.

Posted by Suze Bragg on May 15, 2007 | Comments (0)