Do you have some hidden assets that could be used to help you market your business? Often, when engaged with clients, I’ll notice an underutilized asset that could help deliver a compelling message or support brand positioning.
In the world of the consumer-packaged goods, the back of the cereal box was once an under-utilized network. In the twentieth century, marketers realized that the millions of boxes they sell could be seen as a network to reach their customers. 
Kellogg’s is most likely the first cereal brand to recognize that they could tell stories and create content for consumers while they were consuming the product. They used promotions and cross-product promotions more than one-hundred twenty-five years ago. Leveraging hidden assets is not new, but is often overlooked.
What Kellogg’s realized was that they could share stories about the efficacy of ingredients, the fun stories of characters, and even the benefits of convenient breakfast foods directly to consumers. It was like direct marketing before the Internet. Think of what they did more than a century ago like texting and email marketing in the nineteenth century. They were leveraging hidden assets available to them.
What Hidden Assets Do You Have?
- Have you ever considered how the shipping cartons that hold your package could be a way to communicate brand messages to those who come in contact with your product? Printing on a container or product overwrap film is cheap, compared to how hard it is to reach thousands of the right people to reinforce your positioning.
- Are you printing value propositions messaging on the product itself? Could you, for example, come up with pithy, smart messages to communicate on the product why what you sell is better than the competition? On-pack messaging are useful for B2B companies. For example, when I worked for Nomacorc, and we created a bio-based polymer closure made from sugarcane instead of conventional fossil-fuel plastic, we told that story on the cork. In our Rachel’s Brownies days, we used to print an offer on the underside of the card that supported the brownie for special gift boxes. Since we sold millions of brownies, we made tens of thousands of dollars by recognizing an under-utilized asset. For one client, we were promoting the idea of breaking their addiction to Excel, so we created packs of what looked like nicotine gum to handout with our message.
- Have you ever used your delivery trucks as moving billboards to articulate usage occasions, that show why your company offers something new, different, and valuable?
- If your company sends out 10,000 emails a month in the ordinary course of business, can your marketing team develop smart messaging in your signature that subtly brands your offering? Maybe go beyond the signature, and find a novel way to use all that real estate?
- Can you create branded product giveaways or promotional premiums like fun, branded stickers that you put into invoices, or can be handed out at tradeshows that offer a smart way to reach the thousands of people who pass by your booth, and can help communicate your message? Consider giving away free bags to collect literature at a tradeshow with a well-branded message that becomes walking billboards at trade shows for your business.
- If you get a lot of phone calls each day, can your on-hold message reinforce essential communications instead of playing elevator music?
In Search of Hidden Assets
I’m always on the lookout for how I can use an asset to reinforce essential communication. If your sales teams meet with 20 companies a week, what are you leaving behind to strengthen your point of difference? Is your business card boring or does it tell your story?
Does your welcome mat tell a story, or is it just a place to wipe your feet? In the photo, you can see how we reinforced our branding message about being TRANSFOAMATION EXPERTS at Nomaco. They transform foam – and we trademarked the phrase TRANSFOAMATION. We found lots of places to reinforce that message.
If the message is human, clever and fun, it can reinforce the value you bring to customers.
Is there somewhere in your business where you could print a message and reach thousands of customers at virtually no cost?
Does your business need a marketing coach, guide or sherpa? Are you generating enough leads? Is your marketing underperforming? I can help.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Our initial conversation is free. You talk, I listen. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com or call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com Let’s explore working together today.
Photos courtesy of Kellogg’s
