Just Give Them Something to Talk About - Excerpts From the "Word of Mouth Guru"

[Coach K]

So I’m working on a marketing plan for a client. Like many small businesses they have a limited budget for marketing so every tactic we’re proposing is designed to get folks talking. Like the Bonnie Raitt song, our mantra is Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About.
A slam dunk tactic for generating conversation - Advertising Specialty Products (ASP).

Now hold on, before you go accusing me of trying to just give a fancy name to what some call “tchotchkes” let me explain the difference.

But before I do that, have you wondered where the word “tchotchkes” came from? Well according to Wikipedia it’s a Yiddish term for trinket. Being a native New Yorker I suspect I must have heard the term while growing up in Brooklyn and Queens, yet never knew what it meant.

Well, after several years in marketing I’ve become quite familiar with the term. I’ve given out countless thousands of tchotchkes in countless venues. Yet the term has somewhat of a negative connotation-cheap, showy, worthless or tacky. No marketer would ever want to be associated with the negative aspects of the term.

Anyway…back to my original point. A tchotchke is a cheap, showy, trinket we give away and maybe, just maybe someone will see our name on it, give us a call and place a big order. Yeah….right. On the other hand an advertising specialty product (ASP)is a high quality, branded item that serves as a key touch point for customers. In some instances an ASP is the first contact a client or prospect has with you. You certainly don’t want your prospect’s first impression of you to be cheap. showy, worthless or tacky.

And so my fellow marketers, let us put to rest the “T” word or “C” word (depending on how you spell it), let’s resolve to never risk creating a first impression with new customers that we are cheap, showy or worthless. Develop a plan for the customer experience we want to deliver and begin the experience with a unique, high quality, well-crafted, knock-your socks off item. That will really give them something to talk about.

"Thanks, Lloyd" http://wordofmouthguru.wordpress.com/2008
Coach K
Lloyd Duncan, President, GL Market Research - CT www.glmarketresearch.com/