June 12, 2019 Unconventional Marketing Methods

Learn how you can utilize unorthodox marketing techniques to raise the profile of your brand and generate higher sales.

June 6, 2019

One of the problems faced by many small businesses is to compete with the marketing power of larger businesses. Big businesses have large amounts of money to spend on marketing strategies that small businesses simply can’t hope to compete with. There are, however, a variety of unorthodox marketing techniques you can harness to boost your company’s reach without spending a fortune.

Unconventional marketing techniques certainly help to level the playing field when it comes to massive budget disparities. In particular, it makes it possible for lower-budget SMEs to make an impact on their target demographic. These strategies are designed to help you hone your key message and present it in a distinctive and eye-catching manner to your target audience. Despite strong competition, unconventional marketing ideas can help your brand stand out amongst the crowd, generate brand awareness and attract new customers.

Make customers feel valued

Promoting a cause that is crucial to you as a business or close to your customers’ core interests is important. For example, to show regular customers that you really value their business, you can offer them unique discounts. Making your most committed customers feel appreciated is sure to reinforce your customers’ loyalty. And, retaining customers’ business is essential for any company looking to have any sort of longevity.

Increase visibility

Ultimately, getting your brand in front of more people is an essential part of growing your business. Putting your brand in places where it is most visible will help attract more potential customers. For example, after seeking and getting the relevant permissions, put a sign or ad up in popular spots that your target demographic is likely to frequent. It might be the post office, it might be the Student Union, or it might be on social media. Personalised car flags from Lancaster Printing allow you to promote your business while you’re on the move.

Another inexpensive way to generate interest in your brand for very little investment, is to run a competition that requires entrants to recommend you to their friends, family or acquaintances. For every entrant, there might be another ten sets of eyeballs that running a competition like this puts your brand in front of.

Go against the grain

While this definitely isn’t for everyone, there are ways to drive attention to your brand through provocation or surprise. Unusual or striking branding can be a surprisingly effective way to stoke interest in your brand. One extremely successful example is the Cadbury gorilla. Straying from the safe and predictable tactic of sponsoring British staples like the soap Coronation Street, Cadbury’s splashed out on an advert that only loosely tied in with their brand: the creative idea was ‘founded upon the notion that all communications should be as effortlessly enjoyable as eating the bar itself’.

An animatronic gorilla drummed along with Phil Collins’s In the Air Tonight and helped Cadbury rebound from a spate of PR disasters. The advert was a tremendous success, and even years later, it remains ingrained in the public consciousness. In 2015, Campaign Live named it Britain’s favourite ever advert. Although very few businesses have the resources of a giant like Cadbury’s, who can invest hundreds of thousands of pounds into creating and promoting an advert, it nevertheless shows that straying from what is expected of you as a brand can yield positive results. Maybe you can replicate the virality of Cadbury’s iconic campaign with a well-crafted Youtube video?

See if you can take some of this advice on board and use it to bolster the success of your next marketing campaign.

Subscribe to Industry Today