100 Great Marketing Ideas. From leading companies around the world

Price accordingly—people do not mind paying more if they are getting more.

Complexity of use is a major barrier to adoption—so it is worth ensuring that the product looks easy to use.

MAKE THE PRODUCT EASY TO DEMONSTRATE
SHOWING PEOPLE HOW to use a product can be easy, or it can be hard.

practice
• Try to be funny as well as controversial.

• Don’t go too far—you might get banned altogether!

• If possible, link the controversial brand to your company’s name. This will help you in defending against banning charges.

• The main appeal of controversial brand names is to younger people. This idea would not work for an older audience, or in a “serious” context such as financial services.

Being controversial carries risks—but in this case it certainly carried rewards as well.

The new brand appealed to rebellious teenagers who had not even been born when the company was founded—and when some people in authority failed to see the joke and banned the company’s advertising, sales went up even further (and with reduced promotional costs as a sweetener).

Cutting through the clutter of short, memorable, zingy brand names is difficult to say the least.

HAVE A STARTLING BRAND
MAKING YOUR BRAND name stand out from all the others is an obvious thing to do—yet many firms (especially small businesses) have brand names that are based on the founder’s surname, or house name, or favorite pet’s name. This is a classic wasted opportunity.

In practice
• Have a clear idea yourself of what your corporate vision is going to be.

• Communicate the vision consistently and frequently.

• Ensure that the staff can see that there is something in it for them in terms of self-esteem and the esteem of others.

• Help staff to realize the vision.

This social pressure can be a great deal more motivating than money, or indeed anything else: the esprit de corps that makes soldiers go into battle is based on it.