Why to spend more on marketing and get less results

Published in

The Startup

6 min readMar 16, 2019

Hire a fancy advertising agency to create a concept. Bring in a hotshot director, someone who only shoots movies. Buy media for the big events like the Superbowl. Also invest in a lot of Facebook and Insta ads. Oh, and get a bunch of influencers to talk/tweet/snap.

The results will likely be middling. But it’s better to follow the marketing playbook and get mediocre results than it is to do something different and fail.

Here are five companies whose strategies you’ll want to AVOID if you want to stay on book and lead the middle of the pack.

1. Don’t Mess Around Like Dirty Lemon

Since it’s launch in 2015, Dirty Lemon has been a millennial drink darling — minimally designed and cleverly marketed “it’s not a cleanse” drinks made of dirty lemon water (water+lemon) infused with ingredients for flavor+function (collagen fora gorgeous glow, ginseng for mega energy, charcoal for total detox).

Last year, Dirty Lemon launched Drug Store — their first brick-and-mortar location in NYC. The big talking point here: it’s a store based on the honor system. Walk in, take a drink, walk out, text to pay later. Dirty Lemon already used a text-to-buy experience for their online orders. But doing it IRL puts a lot more trust in their customer… and gives them a sticky thing to say about the brand. “Have you heard about Dirty Lemon? You just grab a drink and walk out!” Making paying voluntary may seem like a risky move — but it pays for itself in conversation starters.

⚡AVOID THIS STRATEGY⚡Buying your brand doesn’t need to be better or easier. So don’t devote time or resources to looking for opportunities to do something radically different that could rock the flow.

2. Don’t Make The Standard Your Standard

In April 2018, The Standard Hotels, a boutique chain known for edgy vibes and a see-and-be-seen crowds, installed big colorful phone booths at their hotels in NYC, LA, and Miami. The call to action? Ring Your Rep.

Each booth is set up to dial Congress directly. Pick up the phone, enter your zip code and leave your rep a message about any issue. There’s even a handy script with advice for how to position your points.

Since they installed the booths, over 3,000 people have called — but MORE have talked about it.

They’ve also added direct dial features to their rooms and hosted Ring Your Rep events in all of their cities, partnering with the ACLU and Fashion Week.

By making activism easier than ever, The Standard is empowering guests to make their voices heard — a mission that aligns perfectly with the value they place on radical self expression and interconnection. They got creative in their space and turned it into a platform.

⚡AVOID THIS STRATEGY⚡The core values of your brand live in your brand platform — and that’s where they belong. Don’t call a meeting to brainstorm new ways to bring them to life through experiences.

3. Don’t Slay Like Buffy

When Buffy launched what they called the comfiest, cleanest, healthiest and most eco-friendly comforter ever, they did everything to get people feeling good about the ultimate feel-good purchase.

Sustainably-made? Check. No harmful chemicals? Check. Filling made partially from recycled water bottles? Check, check and check.

But what REALLY got people talking was a marketing technique that’s often applied to other product categories — but not typically to bedding: Try Buffy Free for 30 Nights. It’s a risk-free test period with no charge until you’re smitten.

Buffy’s win here was three-pronged: (1) Taken alone, the “try before you buy” approach immediately conveys confidence. This is a company that stands behind its product, and that’s super appealing. (2) When Buffy put this approach to work on an incredibly personal item that gets used in an incredibly personal way (aka your bedding), it turned heads and made people talk about it because it both was unique AND appreciated. (3) By not charging your card until after 30 days, they made the test period feel like a REAL test period — not hassle-full return.

⚡AVOID THIS STRATEGY⚡Testing the limits of your marketing is super scary. Leave the tried-and-true marketing technique where they’ve been tried before. It’s where they’re comfortable.

4. Don’t Get Schooled by Primary

Every October, the pressure’s on to create a unique costume for your kids. But the choices are not so choice: cheap polyester one-and-dones or potential DIY disasters. For those lacking extra time and crafty talent, it’s a real horror story.

Enter Primary, the “awesome kid’s basics at reasonable prices” brand. To help end parents’ struggs, they launched a free Costume Concierge service. Simply call them up to connect with a DIY guru who helps you bring any idea to life and walks you step-by-step through an easy-as-possible process — including tips on where to buy extra fabric and exactly what glue to get. The costumes all start with Primary basics, many of which you undecorate and re-wear long after the candy’s been consumed.

The service doesn’t cost Primary much, but it has a tremendous impact on parent’s interactions with and love for the brand: positioning them as the go-to resource who really cares. Plus, it gives parents something awesome to talk about to all the mommies and me.

⚡️AVOID THIS STRATEGY⚡️Everyone loves a helping hand. But don’t try and figure out an unexpected way you can help your customer out with a problem. Leave the treats for kids.

5. Don’t Go All Outside Like REI

In 2015, REI sent shockwaves through the retail world. On Black Friday — the holy grail day of shopping days — REI went MIA. Not only did they NOT have sales and discounts…

They didn’t have employees. REI closed its doors to purchases IRL and online — encouraging everyone to #OptOutside and spend their day exploring the great outdoors rather than fighting the crowds indoors. Bonus: They were still paying all of their employees for the day. The shuttering down got everyone hyped up: people couldn’t stop talking about what a genuine and caring company REI was. And it put tremendous focus on their brand values in a way that people connected with.

Four years later, their CEO credits the now yearly closures with helping REI survive the retail apocalypse — during which over 200 big retailers have died. Others have copied the approach, but no one’s gotten people talking like REI. And the campaign has become part of their core alongside their values.

⚡️AVOID THIS STRATEGY⚡️You don’t want customers to better identify with you. Don’t think outside your big box — or think about the people who work to make your product happen.

And there you have them…

Five strategies you should for sure avoid if you want to lead the middle of the pack. Now go put your money where your marketing is.

If you liked this article, give it some 👏👏👏.

And follow me places:
Medium | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter