A Marketing Lesson from a Fool in a Mustang and Two Gals

7 replies
I was standing in line at the Dairy Queen when a young guy in an old Mustang stopped at the light just across the road. When the guy in the Mustang revved his engine to show off his loud pipes, one of the gals behind me said, "Oh yeah, you're a tough guy." Several people in line then laughed at the guy who apparently thought he was impressing someone.

This guy kept goosing the engine, tooting his horn, and waving at the ladies. He thought he was cool, you could just tell. In the meantime, the more he "showed off" the more the gals made fun of him and the more everyone laughed at him.

What does this have to do with marketing?

The guy had obviously stuck a ton of money and time into fixing up this classic old car, but he was being made fun of and laughed at by the audience he was apparently trying to impress (target).

The correlation to marketing is that you can sink a boatload of time and money into a product, but if it's not something anyone is interested in buying, or if you don't get it front of the right audience, it's all for nothing.

Find a market people are spending money in, then create a product they want and put it in front of them. Don't make a product first and then try to find an audience for it or you'll be like the guy in the Mustang, goosing his engine and impressing no one.

Dennis
#fool #gals #lesson #marketing #mustang
  • Profile picture of the author awmi
    Interesting observation. Point well taken.

    People's wants/demands should clearly dictate products/services.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Jordan
    How do I know if I have the right product?
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    • Profile picture of the author Kelly Verge
      Originally Posted by Mark Jordan View Post

      How do I know if I have the right product?
      Look to your market. Where are they? What are they buying?

      In Dennis' case, they wanted ice cream.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kella Bella
        Originally Posted by Kelly Verge View Post

        Look to your market. Where are they? What are they buying?

        In Dennis' case, they wanted ice cream.
        They might have been impressed more if he was carrying a blizzard n a dilly buster bar eh?
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    • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
      Originally Posted by Mark Jordan View Post

      How do I know if I have the right product?
      Good question, Mark. One that every marketer wonders about to one degree or another as they move forward. Sometimes even the most experienced marketers miss their mark.

      Kelly touched on it, it comes down to knowing your market. For example, say I have some expertise in gardening and want to create some info-products about that. I'd go to gardening forums and see what kind questions and problems people are having. I might even go to a gardening center and poll people coming and going. I'd do keyword research to see what the most common search terms are. I'd try to to determine which of those search terms might be used by people close to making a decision to buy a product.

      I'd go to places like Amazon and Barnes and Noble to see what books are popular in the gardening niche. I'd go to a bookstore and go through the relevant magazines to see what topics are popular. Publishers spend all kinds of money on market research, so piggyback off their efforts and money.

      If I was already in that niche, I'd poll my website visitors and mailing list members to see what they are interested in, what they'd be willing to pay for, and what questions they have.

      The way to success is to make yourself as familiar with your target niche as you reasonably can, without making a lifelong study of it, of course.

      Going back to the guy in the Mustang, if he'd have pulled the same antics at an old car show he might have received a much more positive response because he'd be in front of an audience that was interested in old cars. As it were, he just tried to impress a random audience, and it didn't work.

      Hope that helps.

      Dennis
      Signature

      Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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  • Profile picture of the author Lou Diamond
    Hello,
    the whole thing about marketing on the internet is that it can be very easy to change things around.
    If you have made a mistake all you have to do is keep making changes until you get it right.
    Signature

    Something new soon.

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  • Profile picture of the author ikuret75
    Sometimes what bothers me is that "a guy on Mustang" who annoys most everyone has a gorgeous girl with him! (And everyone wonders why) Maybe in the IM analogy it could be a super niche? :p
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