Good Marketing is no Mystery

I've been very sick the last few days and as such have experienced the dark depths of couch potatodom. Anyways, to make a short story long...

There was 54 channels and nothing on (thanks Bruce) which meant I did a lot of channel surfing, while doing so, I happened across a news article on a unique plumber in Lethbridge, Alberta.

The name of his plumbing company is Mystery Plumber. What makes this plumber unique is that he shows up at your home or business dressed up in a costume. On the featurette that I saw, he was dressed up as Ace Frehley, Elvis, and a wrestler - what fun! Here is the link to the show's article: http://www.careerstv.com/WhatsNew.aspx#obp

On the Mystery Plumber website (http://www.mysteryplumber.com/) there are a few pictures of some other costumes and some other information and stories of how he's been covered in the media.

Here is a great example of a guy that starts up a new business that is very dependent on customer referrals and takes a huge chunk of market share in short amount of time... not by doing what the others are doing, but by being different. By taking a chance, bringing some humour into the equation and doing good work.

When I saw the article I was impressed with the plumbers' moxie and his willingness to laugh at himself. His strategy seems to have paid off - the unique delivery of his service got him great media exposure which most certainly caused his phone to ring - doing a good job ensures repeat business and the uniqueness of the service means there will be no end of curious customers with toilet troubles.

Well done Mystery Plumber. I really admire the strategy and the originality of your marketing approach. It frustrates me to no end when I hear business owners say, 'that's not how our industry markets itself' or 'nobody else does that'.

Marketing a company is not rocket science, there is some science to it, but none involving actual rockets. In fact, when it comes right down to it all you really need to do is understand who your customer is, what would motivate them to use your service and promote it. It's really that easy (almost).

So if you're looking for free marketing advice; dressing up like Elvis always works. (unless of course, you're in pharmaceutical sales)