Marketing That Ends Up In The Circular Bin

Why would a company spend money on marketing that ends up in the circular bin? “Small Business Stacey” rants about her experience in going to see the musical “Hello Dolly”.

Episode Summary:

In Washington DC there’s a place called the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It’s a wonderful building that has all different kinds of shows, ballet’s, theatrical performances. My aunt is actually their longest-standing volunteer. She has been there for over 50 years. She started even before they started building the Kennedy Center and on the positive side of things, they have this wonderful plaque up on the wall with her name and they made an amazing video recognizing her. I will actually put that link to that in the comments below if you want to take a look. Now, that actually is a great marketing takeaway because the Kennedy Center did a great job of recognizing their longest-standing volunteers, right? Too many small business owners are always focusing on more and more and more new, new, new, but in this case, recognizing your best customers, clients and patients was really powerful. Now back to my story because my aunt is a longstanding volunteer at the Kennedy Center.

She gets significantly discounted tickets to shows. And so she asked if she, if she could take me to see Hello Dolly, which was in town. It’s a musical I had never seen. And I love musicals and although I’ve always, you know, known the song. Hello Dolly. Well Hello Dolly. You can see why I’m not up on the stage. Anyways, I was so excited to go and see the show. So when you go in to the theater they give you this playbook. Okay. And so here’s my rant. One is the cover of it is about Aladdin. Well I wasn’t going to see a Aladdin, I was going to see Hello Dolly. And the print in here, everything is microscopic. You cannot see any of the words or anything in here. And there really wasn’t anything about the show, right? I didn’t know the backstory of Hello Dolly and all that was in here was a bunch of donors names to the Kennedy Center.

So I was like kind of frustrated with that. And then what happens? We all know this book is not inexpensive to produce. And what happens when you leave? It goes into the circular bin. I’m like, what a waste of resources. So my feeling was how about using technology? Right? And I know many times you hear me say stay away from the newest tools and technologies, but I was thinking, what if the Kennedy Center had an app and each of the shows were on there. And as you’re sitting there 10 minutes before the performance, you pull up the app and you could learn more about the show that you’re about to see, the whole backstory of it. They could even have the main performers tell about their journey, how they became an actor or why they got involved with the show, what part of the show they’re most excited, their favorite song or dance or whatever it is.

Right? But it then creates a connection, right? And then you’re excited to be part of this performance. So afterward I asked my aunt, I said, why do they spend all this money creating this book that ends up going in the trash? And she said, because the donors like to see their name in print. Okay, I kind of get that. But what if while you’re waiting for the theatrical performance, either on the main screen or even on side banners, they could have a running list of the donors, kind of like the credits after a movie. Right? That would be a much better use of that, rather than printing this which goes in the trash and you know how this is paid for, right? Not only the donors but ads. Okay. So you as a small business owner, I’m sure your hear all the time, oh, put your business card or half page ad in one of these little booklets.

I would highly encourage you not to do that because you know what happens. This goes in the circular bin. So while I truly loved Hello Dolly, it was an amazing performance. How those people have the energy to sing and dance like that is absolutely phenomenal. But the marketing takeaway was I was just not impressed with this show booklet. So I’d love to know your comments on this. How do you feel about these kinds of programs and advertising in them? And or using some kind of technology to enhance it. I’d love to hear from you. Leave me a comment below.

This is “Small Business Stacey”, your Small Biz Marketing Specialist here to help you get your marketing into ACTION and help you become a #SmallBizMarketingWiz. Bye Bye.