Marketing Success Through Stories
March 5th, 12th, and 19th
from 4:30pm to 6:30pm
How to market like Nike on a nano-budget
You have convinced yourself that if you had more money and could do some “real” marketing your business would be a success. Right? Most of us have been guilty of using some resource constraint as a convenient excuse for not reaching the success we know we should have. Sure, big corporations have bigger marketing budgets than we have, but bigger isn’t better, Bigger isn’t more successful. Bigger is just bigger. It is a fact, not a predetermined outcome.
How can you copy Nike's secret marketing weapon?
The genius of Nike is in their Just Do It slogan. They are inviting, encouraging, even demanding that we get out there and do what our passion dictates. They use emotional branding based on the Hero archetype. And we, the customers, are the heroes in our own tale of overcoming adversity. The adversity is our own internal laziness. Just Do It means get off the couch, put down the smartphone, get out there and just start working on your passion, whether it be running, kayaking, or water color painting!
Nike uses emotionally charged stories of their customers achieving success. We love to read their stories and can so easily identify with them as we all carry the same demons of laziness, inaction, and lack of sticking with achieving a goal when the going gets tough.
Fortunately for us, this is one Nike strategy that every small business can copy. You may have no marketing budget, but if you have stories to tell, you can use Nike’s strategy to create raving fans for your business. You can tell the story of your passion and purpose for your business. You can tell stories of your customers and how they have benefited from your products or services – and this means everything from weight loss or addiction recovery to avoiding an IT disaster.
If you are not using stories to build a following of ideal customers, you are missing the greatest marketing asset possible for a small business.
So, get off the couch and just do it! The 3 week Marketing Success through Stories begins Thursday, March 5th , 4:30 - 6:30 pm at the Mendocino Works Building in Ukiah. Come and learn how to discover your stories and use them to engage your ideal customers. Read more about the program at Rencentermarin.org
About the Presenter: Janet Wentworth, author of Your Unstopplable Brand: the practical guide to engaging your ideal customers through the power of stories. Janet is a Business Advisor with the Sonomna, Marin, and Mendocino Small Business Development Centers, and a certified Guerilla Marketing Coach. Previously she worked with a number of technology companies, from small firms to global enterprises. This range of experiences proved that, while large companies have bigger budgets and more resources, small business owners are more passionate about their business and their customers. Due to their resource constraints, they must substitue creativity for money. Most importantly, they have the best stories to tell!
Funding provided by the State of California Department of Housing and Community Block Grant Program, City of Fort Bragg and Mendocino County. Funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the SBA. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities and persons with limited English proficiency will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. All SBA programs and services are provided to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis.