Page 58 - Duct Tape Marketing

Discover Your Core Marketing Message

While driving home one day, Laura started thinking about what
it means to be a regular at her coffee shop. As soon as she got home,
she created a coupon with a very happy woman on the front that says,
“Nothing feels as good as being regular!” The back of the coupon
lists her location and all the reasons why it’s great to be a regular at
Espresso Escapes.

She left them in bathrooms all over downtown. At first, people
were sort of confused by them, but the coupons have since attracted
more attention and income than any other promotion she has done.

Take a good, hard look at the purpose statement and the “what
you do for a living” statement you created earlier. What is the chief
benefit of doing business with your firm? What words or ideas can
help you easily communicate your difference?

In the following examples, I demonstrate how a firm progresses
through taking a position and then creating a marketing purpose
statement, talking logo, and core message.

1. My architect from earlier in this chapter realized that much of
his work was design/build, a process that generally asked the
contractor and architect to act as a team in the completion of
a building. Contractors who brought them into projects liked
what they offered the project team. The architect also noted
that while contractors and developers vigorously embraced the
idea of design/build, most architects only entered into this type
of arrangement when required. In fact, while most of the larger
construction firms advertised their design/build experience, no
architectural firm did so.
The architect decided to position his firm as the design/
build architects. They needed to convince contractors that they
were “contractor friendly,” especially since contractors controlled
many of the design/build decisions.

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