The Ethical Way to "Steal" Marketing Ideas

“There’s nothing new under the sun.” I believe this old saying in every sense of its meaning.

What there is, however, is creative application, reworking, and improvement of ideas and tangible objects that give us ever-evolving products, services, and lifestyles. Though we could all argue society would be better off without some innovations that have come along, most will agree that, in the big picture, our situations, experiences, and comfort are enhanced because of the drive of untold millions of human minds making incremental changes to existing realities over centuries of time.

What does this have to do with marketing? EVERYTHING!

If we begin at square one with everything we do, we won’t make it very far in business. We must use others’ successes as springboards to move ahead. Here are just two of the many ways to borrow and build on the efforts of other businesses in meeting our marketing goals:

1. Look for successful marketing strategies and tactics in industries outside our own. It’s easy to get stuck in the rut of doing the same things as our competitors in marketing our businesses. What’s working in other industries? Other geographic markets? How can these successes be adapted to work for us?

2. Borrowing existing assets of other companies is another way to enhance our opportunities. When Canon decided to enter the copier arena against Xerox, they didn’t start from square one. They licensed existing technology and aligned themselves with established distribution channels. They leveraged others’ assets to gain a foothold in the marketplace and launch a thriving division of their company.

Gather your team and look at these two areas of opportunity. What can you borrow from others’ success that has application in your situation? Whose intellectual property, technology, client base, or other assets can you leverage to bring greater returns to your business while benefitting the assets’ current owners?

OK, so what I’m talking about here isn’t really “stealing” as the headline said. It’s innovating…the same way mankind has been doing it from the beginning. As we open our eyes and our minds, we’ll find new, productive ways to market our businesses using others’ ideas and innovations as stepping stones to our own greater achievement.

Here’s to your 2011 marketing success!

Bryan Waldon Pope

Finding Our Hidden Marketing Assets (Part 2 of 2)

In my last post, I talked about people and organizations that may be seen as marketing assets. Today I’ll share two other categories of possible assets we should each examine with the help of our marketing teams.

The two categories are: tangibles and intangibles. These categories cover just about anything that isn’t a person our group of people. I enjoy working with clients to find these resources because they are usually much more readily visible by me than by the people working day-to-day in the business. That’s the power of your mastermind team. Since they aren’t in the trenches in your business every day, they stand in a better position to see these assets and opportunities. Here’s a short list of items under each category to help prompt the creative juices as you consider your own situation:

Tangibles

Wasted production space
Overstocked items
Old inventory
Repackaging current products or services
(bundling, re-purposing, etc.)
On-hand collateral material
Databases
Etc…

Intangibles

Successful campaigns and activities from the past
Joint-venture opportunities
Bartering
Publicity opportunities
Unused intellectual property
Relationships and connections
Etc…

Between the lists I shared previously and these two, every person reading these posts has the opportunity to identify and engage at least a couple of meaningful assets at no financial expense to increase revenues.

I’d love to hear your success stories or answer any questions you have. Just comment below. Let’s uncover our hidden marketing assets and put them to work.

Here’s to your marketing success!

Bryan Waldon Pope

Finding Our Hidden Marketing Assets (Part 1 of 2)

Any time I ask business owners and marketing managers what the one thing is they’d like more of to effectively market themselves, I always get the same response that has already popped into your head: money. While more money can be hugely beneficial in marketing our businesses, we all have other assets--many of which may be hidden from our immediate view--that can be used to meet our marketing objectives.

Today I’d like to share two of four categories of assets we should take time to carefully explore: people and organizations. Our connections and affiliations can be leveraged appropriately, tastefully, and effectively to ultimately bring us the greater success we’re each seeking. Here’s a partial list of places to look to get your mind going:

People:

Vendors
Clients
Employees
Friends
Family Members
Inactive Clients
Old Colleagues
Past Employees
Past Co-workers
Past Business Partners
Mentors
…and the list goes on.

Organizations:

Associations
Chambers of Commerce
Networking Groups
Mastermind Groups
Seminar and Workshop Groups
Business Societies
etc…

Gather your team and take a look at the resources and assets available to you as a collective group in terms of relationships and associations with other people and organizations. You’ll be surprised at the opportunities available in these largely untapped asset pools.

Next time I’ll share some insights on two other groups of assets to consider diving into to find unused marketing opportunity.

Here’s to your marketing success!

Bryan Waldon Pope