April 2009

By Ken Schmaltz, Marketing Director, Twist Marketing

As the father of a four-year-old and a nine-year-old boy, I’ve seen all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies repeatedly. You would also need both hands and at least one foot to count the number of times I’ve been to Disneyland and gone on the ride, but that’s another story and probably best saved for my therapist!

Of all three movies, my favorite scene comes early in the first, Curse of the Black Pearl. Captain Jack Sparrow has just been identified as a pirate and captured by a local captain of the British Royal Navy.

Commodore: “You are without a doubt the worst pirate I've ever heard of.”

Captain Jack Sparrow: “Ah, but you have heard of me.”

With the economy in a downturn, this reminded me of the last bust, known as the popping of the dot.com bubble. Why? Because, if nothing else, that time is known for the volume of its marketing. For the purposes of this article, forget the fact that there usually wasn’t much in the way of a product, service or even a business model to back up that marketing.

Perhaps the most infamous example of marketing in those heady times was the pets.com sock puppet. The image of that hand stuck inside a sock-cum-canine-spokesanimal was everywhere. On Super Bowl commercials, the Web, late night talk shows. Say what you want about that sock puppet—and a lot of people said a lot of things—you knew about pets.com whether you had a pet or not. The marketers behind it created buzz for the company that most of us can only dream of. Pets.com may have had the worst business model you’d ever heard of, but you had heard of it.

The lesson here is that your customers can’t buy from you if they’ve never heard of your company. All too often, businesses are too cautious to get their name out in front of their target audience. What if we lose control of the message? What if people think our campaign concept is stupid? What if someone says something negative about us on a blog or forum? What if...?

While all of these are valid concerns that any marketer worth his/her salt will take into consideration when developing effective strategies and determining the optimal marketing mix, there comes a time when you just have to put yourself out there. You have to get your brand in front of your customers over and over again to create the kind of buzz that will ensure they’ve heard of you when they’re ready to make a purchasing decision.

The Twist: It’s better to make too much noise than not enough. If you’re confident that your products or services are the best that your customers have ever heard of, you don’t need to worry about any criticism that might come your way. Just like Captain Jack Sparrow’s actions proved he was the best pirate anyone had ever heard of, your product, service and overall brand experience will speak for themselves.