Brilliant Social Media (Twitter) Strategist Is a Truck Driver
Hi Warriors,
I watched a very interesting news on CNN tonight and wanted to report to you. I am going to tie "Internet Marketing" to the story, but bear with me, I only watched this news an hour ago.
The news I am referring to is CNN report on LA's Kogi BBQ truck.
What's so newsworthy? The truck uses Twitter @kogiBBQ to broadcast the daily route.
In other words, if you don't follow them on Twitter, you can't eat their $2 Taco (Korean beef). No, you can't just drive out to an establishment to find their restaurant (doesn't exist). But you must find where they are every night in order to eat.
Is it the "scarcity" tactic of the moving truck that's interesting? Or is it the "social proof" that confirms "if everyone is talking about it in LA, it must be good"? Or perhaps, it's the "tribe" that Kogi truck creates.
I think everything that Kogi truck does can be applied to online marketing.
First of all, Kogi's simple, yet creative use of Social Media (Twitter) is brilliant, timely and repeat (RT) worthy.
Second, the product is unique. It didn't "follow the herd" by creating average Mexican food to the average population, but added its own twist (Korean BBQ/Mexican food). It was a bold move, yet it paid off (only been around since Nov 2008).
The third element is the irresistible and "exclusive" social network of people who follow the truck. Once you eat Kogi, people feel empowered to belong to the very rare opportunity. The StomperNet's "limited membership" or the Mass Control's "1 day only" sale allows the customers to feel that they belong to the very special network. The whole "experience" of becoming part of anything that special and limited is always fun.
Too often, we as marketers still talk about the "features and benefits" to the market. Those marketing principles will always be important, but in today's "Attention Deficit society" (as Rich Schefren calls it), merely talking about the "features and benefits" only make the message average, which gets ignored by majority of people.
So having said this, is there anything we can learn from this story? Is this a relevant story to Internet Marketers?
I watched a very interesting news on CNN tonight and wanted to report to you. I am going to tie "Internet Marketing" to the story, but bear with me, I only watched this news an hour ago.
The news I am referring to is CNN report on LA's Kogi BBQ truck.
What's so newsworthy? The truck uses Twitter @kogiBBQ to broadcast the daily route.
In other words, if you don't follow them on Twitter, you can't eat their $2 Taco (Korean beef). No, you can't just drive out to an establishment to find their restaurant (doesn't exist). But you must find where they are every night in order to eat.
"Two Kogi trucks, named Verde and Roja, roam the streets of the Los Angeles area from noon until about 2 a.m. Kogi co-founder Caroline Shin-Manguera sometimes has a hard time wrapping her head around their success."Well, I don't know what everyone thinks. But I thought it was a remarkable story to share - the story that has lots of interesting social elements built into it, and I thought we could feel inspired as internet marketers.
"It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. We make our people wait in line for two hours, and we make them wait in the rain, and we don't give them chairs to sit on, we don't take reservations, we're late half the time, but we must be doing something right."
Is it the "scarcity" tactic of the moving truck that's interesting? Or is it the "social proof" that confirms "if everyone is talking about it in LA, it must be good"? Or perhaps, it's the "tribe" that Kogi truck creates.
I think everything that Kogi truck does can be applied to online marketing.
First of all, Kogi's simple, yet creative use of Social Media (Twitter) is brilliant, timely and repeat (RT) worthy.
Second, the product is unique. It didn't "follow the herd" by creating average Mexican food to the average population, but added its own twist (Korean BBQ/Mexican food). It was a bold move, yet it paid off (only been around since Nov 2008).
The third element is the irresistible and "exclusive" social network of people who follow the truck. Once you eat Kogi, people feel empowered to belong to the very rare opportunity. The StomperNet's "limited membership" or the Mass Control's "1 day only" sale allows the customers to feel that they belong to the very special network. The whole "experience" of becoming part of anything that special and limited is always fun.
Too often, we as marketers still talk about the "features and benefits" to the market. Those marketing principles will always be important, but in today's "Attention Deficit society" (as Rich Schefren calls it), merely talking about the "features and benefits" only make the message average, which gets ignored by majority of people.
So having said this, is there anything we can learn from this story? Is this a relevant story to Internet Marketers?
- Harry Behrens