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WHEN WACKY MARKETING WORKS

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We’ve had fun on social media this week by celebrating wacky holidays. Who knew, there’s  a fun (and sometimes weird) thing to be celebrated every day of the year? Today happens to be Spouse’s Day so make sure to do something extra special for your better half. Strategies like this are a fresh way to have a good time when it comes to marketing your business. There are other wild and crazy tactics that companies have used to be remembered. Apparently, being unconventional attracts a lot of people. Here’s a couple times when getting wacky with marketing actually worked.

Live in the MSI for a Month!

Yes, you read that right. Back in 2010, the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago began a contest called the Month at the Museum Contest. One person was chosen from a pool of 1,000 applicants and that lucky person got to live, day in and day out, inside the museum. What an adventure and we must say, a pretty weird one. The winner was selected to not only live there 24 hours a day for 30 days but was also given $10,000 for his time spent there. On top of the 10 grand, he also walked away with some pretty cool tech swag including a camera and a laptop. It sounds like the museum held the contest for a few years and has since done away with it but kudos to them for thinking outside the box.

Reverse Psychology

We are all pretty familiar with the idea behind being enticed by something that is forbidden. Isn’t weird that when we aren’t supposed to have something, we want it more?  Reverse psychology has been around for a while and was made famous by the Reactance Theory. Have you ever used it in your marketing strategies? Patagonia did and go figure, it worked. On Black Friday in 2011 they ran an ad in The New York Times saying “Don’t Buy This Jacket”. The picture (shown above) tempted shoppers, but Patagonia’s idea was that they wanted consumers to hold back from buying it on an impulse, you might not need that one-of-a-kind fleece jacket, right now, right? The clothing industry is infamous for the amount of waste they create so Patagonia decided to play with consumers minds by having the right buyer realize “if I’m going to purchase a jacket, it should be this one because it’s made of recycled materials, is known for its durability and the company will back me up with their excellent customer service”. It worked for Patagonia and it’s worked for a couple other companies too.