Holiday thoughts on marketing

Just back from holiday during which I had time to reflect on fundamental stuff while horizontal and sunkissed. In fact I had some great “being marketed to” experiences, which just confirmed the basics in market. (Context: tourist volumes are down by (some say) 30% in Tenerife.)

1. Have a great product. Let people try the great product, for free. If it’s truly great they’ll buy it. Example: every restaurant along the beach front is touting for business, showing their menus and encouraging reluctant holidaymakers to venture inside. One restaurant, not even on the beach front, is full. That’s the one that’s handing out free samples of fried cod. It tasted great. There was a queue just to get the free samples. Why did no other restaurant try this, and hand out samples of paella? Near-zero incremental cost, ROI in one order.
2. You can differentiate in a commodity market. In Tenerife, all the resorts look basically the same. All the beaches look the same. All the restaurants serve the same food. All the shops sell the same stuff. Differentiation comes through service, through care for customer needs, through creativity. (Note to self: not everyone will appreciate attempts at differentiation. Elvis impersonators appeal to a niche market.)
3. If you have to lie to your prospects to get their attention, there’s something fundamentally wrong in your approach. I’m not sure exactly what the young people offering prize draw scratch cards were selling (timeshare?) but after the fifth time of being accosted even my kids recognised the script. No, you cannot hand the winning ticket in to the tourist office. There are not only three winning tickets each day (or I am improbably lucky, since I won five times). No, I haven’t possible won a cash prize, but I’ll bet you a tenner I’ve won the “free” holiday.

And they say holidays are relaxing…