And, when the
connection has been made, it’s hard to see how anyone could have ever thought
otherwise. Consider the glorious example of Hawaiian pizza - pineapple chunks
where no sane person could reasonably expect them to be, yet the product of
this weird fusion is one of the best-selling pizza lines, and has been
since its inception.
The exotic
topping just caught on, and even its creator, the late great Sam
Panopoulos confessed that, at the time, he had no inkling of how popular
his topping would become; he just thought it was a good idea. In Sam's
case, this gut instinct paid off handsomely, but we cannot all be so lucky.
For those of
us unblessed with Mr Panopoulos’ prophetic gifts, marketing comes down to
reaching out with your brand in a single-minded drive to put your enterprise on
the map (Me! Me! Look at me!),
or adopting a broader and more collective approach (Us! Us! We’re with them!) – it's this latter
strategy that we shall look at in finer detail because, although obduracy
is an advantage when it comes to anything entrepreneurial, sometimes it pays to
spread your bets and look a little further afield from the myopia of your own
marketing hype.
By associating
your brand with other products and wider cultural ideas that are bobbing about
in the infosphere, your enterprise is no longer reliant on your promotional
efforts alone – now you are at liberty to borrow promotional energy from the
other campaigns you are in alignment with. A rising tide to lift all boats,
just so long as all those vessels are securely tethered together and the
flotilla is headed in the right direction. Crossover marketing is very
on-trend, so why not hitch a ride on someone else’s coattails and hope they do
the same for you?
For those
seeking working examples of this neat little thesis, look no further than the
burgeoning iGaming sector, with its bewildering proliferation of live games, poker
apps, and pick-up-and-play casino games of every kind. Every year sees new slot
and casino games entering what is already a crowded market. How then to stand
out and be counted?
A classic
marketing tactic is to tie your new game release to something that’s out there
in the public consciousness already – a blockbuster movie or summer
release, or a high profile rock band currently on tour. If not a strictly
official tie-in, there’s always room for careful positioning and artwork to
suggest a connection where none technically exists. Game of Thrones doing the
rounds on the telly? Expect a fresh batch of Game of Thrones slot games in all
the most popular online casino in UK, replete with spiky thrones and heavy
plate mail, bearing titles like “Throne Game” or Iron Chair”.
Is the new
technology coming up? Be sure that masters of marketing do not let the chance
to pass by and create new catching experience that attract the new users.They
ready to create for you a 3D spaces or even internal online live environment,
with live dealers, smooth lights, roulette table and soft
music, and call it with attractive name. It is a part of marketing strategy of
every big iGaming player.
Tacking into the wind of fickle fashion works well for a business sufficiently
flexible to tack back out again in a hurry should such a step be practical.
Witness the microbreweries sector, where new beer varieties appear and vanish
in endless succession, released to coincide with a current ale festival or
local event, then swapped out for another blend when circumstances are
contingent. Even the bigger breweries play this game, and play it well.
Southwold-based brewery Adnams is an old hand at this kind of thing. Alongside their established cask and keg products, they also produce limited-edition and one-off special beers to commemorate public events and celebratory occasions such as royal birthdays and anniversaries. They have summer beers for the summer crowd, winter beers for the winter crowd, and novelty beers for novelty events; ales for all seasons, basically.
The principle
behind this activity can be condensed and applied to pretty much any business
with sufficient core flexibility to promote more than one product line. It
works just as well for a village cake shop as it does for a large brewery or an
iGaming venture. The scale changes but the key themes remain the same. Find a
trend with which to loosely identify, then do some networking, and strike some
deals - adopt a light-footed stance and you might just be surprised at what can
happen.