Know Your Market
Marketing comes down to three main elements: audience, timing and messaging. We’ve all heard the “three C’s” or “four P’s” or whatever it is that colleges are teaching these days, but it really comes down to who, when and how you are selling whatever it is you are selling. That’s marketing in a nutshell.
Today is the eclipse. People are out of their minds. Everyone seems to be worried about “going blind.” Huh? Just don’t look at the sun, people! My dog sitter even said that she received a “special request” for one pooch: he needs to be kept in a crate, covered, with his favorite toy and treats, listening to soft music. A bit crazy, are we?
The thing that struck me is there seems to be a short supply on these “special” glasses that allow you to view the eclipse without burning your eyes out (you know, that fear of going blind thing). I’m a marketer, not a scientist, so although interesting this does not have me completely fixated at the moment. It’s about an hour until we will start to see a partial eclipse where I am located. I may glance out the window at some point…but I promise I will not go blind. My dog will not either.
My dog doesn’t care about the eclipse. He likes to sleep.
But from a marketing perspective, the glasses are fascinating! I mean, this market LITERALLY did not exist three weeks ago and tomorrow it will not exist anymore! There will be bins and bins of glasses for sale at discount job lots for a quarter because the next one won’t be until 2024 (a considerably shorter span than from 1979 until now…).
So I watch as places that sell Welders Glasses frantically market them to crowds of people who can’t find the cheap paper ones. I watch mommy bloggers make cereal box pinhole viewers for kids, selling ad space and raking the in the dough. I watch the news programs run specials on obscure topics while people get their 15 minutes of fame — good for them!
Finally — tourism! If you are from a little town directly in the line of the full eclipse you are about to have a BOOM of tourism! People are searching for “Airbnb eclipse” and camping and eating out and spending money on gas. All supporting our economy! Go eclipse! So I hope that everyone enjoys this special time.
So the marketer in me is curious — how much eclipse money did you spend?
Originally published at mainspire.com on August 21, 2017.
