A week ago, I took my kids to the Geauga County Fair, here in Ohio. It was a large fair with a lot to do. My kids had a blast. As we walked through the fair, I began to hear an advertisement playing over the loud speakers. The advertisement offered us an opportunity to see Mrna the Mermaid. Mrna is part human, part mermaid and lives in a little gold fish bowl.
Above I included a picture I took of the Myrna show. The price was only $1.00. So I slapped $4 down for my family to see Myrna. I did it because I thought it would be great to write about in the blog. My wife thought I was the dumbest guy in the place.
She might be right. There definitely wasn’t a line to see Myrna. In fact, I might have been the only sucker for the entire day.
After paying to see Myrna, we were ushered up some steps and told to look into a little window. To my surprise, we saw little Myrna sitting in a fish bowl waving to us. She waved every time we peaked in at her. I couldn’t figure out how they did it. It must have been some kind of reflection projected on to the fish bowl. I guess it really doesn’t matter.
Why?
Because the marketing was fantastic.
We left our little friend Myrna and began walking again when we started to hear a new advertisement over the loudspeakers. This time it was for the Amazing Gorilla Girl:
To see the Amazing Gorilla Girl, we had to pay $2.00 each. My wife flat out refused when asked. She was embarrassed enough from Myrna. Too bad!I really wanted to see the Amazing Gorilla Girl.
You can see some of the marketing in the picture above. "See her change right before your eyes!" "Beautiful Girl" "Terrifying Gorilla!" It reminded me of the legendary P.T. Barnum!I read about book about P.T. Barnum years ago. It was very instructive.
The speakers surrounding the Amazing Gorilla blasted comments like: "Don’t enter if you have a history of fainting." Don’t enter if you are pregnant." This was awesome stuff!Everything they said made me want to see her more.
I had no idea that I was going to get such a fantastic marketing lesson at the fair. Maybe now I can write off all of the money I spent throughout the day on my 2008 taxes!
On a serious side note, there is a great deal to learn from this type of marketing. The biggest lesson is how to get the attention of your prospects. I’m sure everyone at the fair heard about the Amazing Gorilla Girl. I’m not sure how many paid to see her.
Does everyone in your market know about you? If not, how come?
