Anyone Want To Get Rich?
There are three basic questions to ask when marketing a product, according to direct marketing genius Dan Kennedy:
USP: Unique selling proposition. WHAT are you offering that no one else offers?
Avatar: WHO is your audience? Do they want what you have? Do they have money to purchase it?
Media: HOW will you reach them? Is there a simple, cost-effective way with measurable results?
I think I’ve got a winner.
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Blacklight and other wall posters were so much fun when I was at Pepperdine University. I have a suggestion for a poster that might not just make a ton of money, but also actually help college kids.
How about a poster which, in parallel columns, lists the effects, mental and physical, and comparative risks and/or benefits of common intoxicants, ranked for risks to body and mind?
Coffee, pot, alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, meth, heroin, whatever. Everything. Really take the most common legal and illegal substances, take the best known research and actually give people a chance to see what’s what. I believe lives could REALLY be saved. There are some substances, like Meth, that strike me as so toxic that no sane human being should go down that road. An honest chart, without a political lean, actually looking at stats on LD50, addiction potential, short and long term benefits/risks, impairment to driving, incitement to violent, risky or transgressive behavior, risks to children who accidentally encounter it…things like that.
The truth is that most high-performing people and cultures have rules and customs for the use of such substances, especially at the end of the work day, end of the week, or on special occasions. Let’s stop pretending it isn’t true, and instead provide people with the information needed to make an informed decision. College is the time when young people by the millions are away from home for the first time, making choices that can affect the rest of their lives.
Knowledge is power.
Why would such a poster make serious $$$?
Well, consider how much such a product would “map over” with the core demographic for Domino’s Pizza. The fun story is that they made a billion-dollar business pretty effectively:
USP: “Fresh hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed”. Note that they didn’t say the pizza was any good. Just fresh, hot, and delivered quickly. Gee, I wonder who their target market was…
AVATAR: If you said “stoned college student” YOU ARE A WINNER! That really was their first target market. They positioned themselves near large college campuses, and made a bloody fortune.
MEDIA: Perfect: fliers distributed on the campuses, with discount coupons. The coupons enabled them to precisely track the effectiveness of their advertising. Brilliant.
So how would this work for my poster?
USP: Actual unprejudiced, non-judgmental information about how to party with the smallest risk? I don’t know if such a thing as ever existed. As a Day-Glo or Blacklight poster? Yeah, I think it works.
AVATAR: College students with an interest in mood-altering substances, including beer and pot. Think there’s a little market there?
MEDIA: Head shops? Liquor stores? Student publications and magazines the kids read?
If you presented the information honestly, not pretending that ANY mind-altering substance is entirely harmless, but presenting the potential problems of each at typical levels and means of ingestion…I suspect you could help a lot of people understand what they are doing to their minds and bodies and each other, at the very time they need such unbiased information desperately.
Wall poster. Bright colors. Side-by-side examinations, ranked for toxicity and bad behavior and risks.
Anyone want to get rich..?
Namaste
Steven Barnes