Marketing Your Business: Sensational Promotion or Lies?
Alta Vista, the American search engine portal, admitted to withholding information about their free Internet access’ service that they launched in spectacular style in March 2000. 270,000 potential users registered for the service: no subscribers received the service.
Until announcing the free service Alta Vista was not a household name. Although popular throughout the world as a leading search engine, Alta Vista had little in the way of brand exposure in the UK. With a likely increase of 500,000 visitors to their web site each month it is understandable why they (or he, Andy Mitchell – now ex managing director Alta Vista UK) chose to remain quiet about the non-viability of actually initiating the service. Further, it now appears that a financial model detailing the cost of offering the service was never produced: would Tony Blair have been so enthusiastic about ‘spinning’ this service had he known how totally inconceivable the ‘plan’ was?
Well, was it a failure? Only just: had Alta Vista ‘come clean’ in, say, May/June 2000 they could have, along with everyone else, abandoned ship and blamed British Telecom for pricing the free access service into oblivion. At this time they had attracted a significant amount of web site traffic, increased advertising and product revenue, positive branding and market penetration for the cost of… well, a few words, “free” access! Was this the game plan from the start: hype the most sensational product in a market where meeting promises and deadlines matter for nothing?
For you small business owners here are a few low cost, and workable, options:
1. Announce a business partnership in your local newspaper, ‘XYZ Co can now announce the partnership agreement with ABC Co that will make the distribution of XXXX the most cost effective and reliable in the region. This strategic partnership is conducted every week between companies and are basic customer/supplier relationships.
2. Similar to the above: if you start using a supplier of regional or national repute announce the connection: ‘XYZ Co have secured the services of ABC Co to maintain the servicing of our important database’.
3. Announce ma in recruitment personnel in regional publications. XYZ Co are excited at the appointment of Caroline Reed, one of the main operators in the field of XXXX, and we welcome interested potential customers to book an early appointment to meet her.
4. Enter your business in awards, competitions and schemes: ‘XYX Co are taking part in this years Business Excellence Award. The winner of last years award being the nationally renowned company ABC Co.
You get the idea. It’ s not di shonest, its marketing within your capabilities. Up to now it has been the exclusive right of the large business, and of course… show biz! An example (and excuse my choice of content): Robbie Williams – ex of Take That – and Geri Halliwell – ex of Spice Girls – are brought together by their agents and stuck on a motor cruiser in the middle of the Mediterranean where gossip leaks out about a romance and record sales increase…
In this case it was the intimating of a partnership that produced much more interest than either could do alone. OK, enough!
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