My wife, Alene (pronounced "ah-LEEN") is an expert on direct mail marketing: For years, she has been telling me that I'm a moron for listening to hundreds of hours of Dan Kennedy, Ted Nicholas, and Gary Halbert "How to Get Rich in Direct Marketing" audio tapes. She thinks these guys are hacks and she doesn't believe for a minute that anyone ever made any money in direct mail simply because she throws out 99% of her direct mail unopened. Got that? She buys one percent of the time -- and trust me, she spends BIG when she buys.
Anyway, last night -- at about 10:30pm -- Alene returns from Target -- where it's 34 degrees, windy, and raining. While there, here is what she saw ...
Game Freaks Wait in Freezing Rain for New xBox.
If you haven't heard, yesterday Microsoft released its new Xbox 360 video game system -- and the gamers were out in force to buy it on immediate arrival at places like Best Buy and Target. So big was the brew-ha that Bill Gates attended the Xbox 360's midnight release at a Best Buy in Seattle.
So Alene gushes, "Those kids are FREAKS! Too bad your customers aren't like that! And I bet they buy a ton of games after they install their new Xbox."
And there you have it. Local Freaks Teach Atlanta Woman What Gary Halbert Has Been Saying for Years: Find a rabid market niche and cultivate that puppy to death. Rabid buyers, according to Mr. Halbert, are people like bass fishermen, brides-to-be, pro wrestling fans, pet lovers, cigar aficionados, wine enthusiasts, Harley Davidson owners, and golfers. People who are passionate to the point of insane about a particular lifestyle and will buy any-damn-thing that supports or promotes it.
Indeed, even legendary copywriters like John Carlton will say that neither the copy nor the offer are as important as the quality of the list. In other words, what you say and how you say it are not nearly as important as to whom you say it.
Think of the "rabidity" or "emotional arousability" of your buyer like a tailwind in golf. For the marketers of the Xbox, launching a product to teens who are prepared to sleep in the freezing rain is like hitting a Big Bertha out of a tee box into a 110 MPH tailwind. Whooooosh!
According to Mr. Kennedy, if you're on a tight budget, you can find a rabid market simply by going to the magazine rack at Borders and looking for titles that cater to a particular subculture. Like yachts, for example. When you find a subculture that looks remotely simpatico with your existing product or service, subscribe to all of the publications in that niche and market accordingly.
"Market accordingly" means to sell to them how they buy -- in their language -- on their payment terms -- through their preferred marketing media, and so on. You have to immerse yourself in the subculture. (When in Rome ...) Then, for example, if you are a law firm, you might consider cobbling together a service offering tailored to yacht ownership: Perhaps "sales, lease, and time-share contract advice and revisions" might be one place to start. I have no idea.
Regardless, nowhere in Mr. Kennedy's or Mr. Halbert's material does it say anything about trying to convert lukewarm personalities into rabid buyers. To my mind, rabidity is in the genes, and you either have rabid tendencies or you don't. So target people who look hot blooded about something, and try to transfer that emotion on to your related product or service.
Obviously, the trick is trying to authentically place your product or service within the context of the lifestyle that's being celebrated. Most members of a subculture can smell an outsider a mile away, and if you look like you're there just to cream the culture, you'll get spit out like a bad banana. At least that has been my experience.
Also, sometimes a company will introduce a product that's so distinctive that a subculture will form around it. MiniCooper and Krispy Kreme are examples. But those are rare. Per Mr. Kennedy, it's far better to target an established market and outsell the competition than to try to establish a new market from scratch.
My point of all this is that two very important marketing experts (my wife and Gary Halbert) finally agree on one thing: In all things marketing, rabidity rules.
See also: How to Reach a Niche Market.
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