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11 pointskarjaluoto8 comments

Yeah, Buckley's... riiight.

Good ads, but they feel forced. As if someone in the marketing dept. said "let's not add any sweeteners, let them have Paracetamol (or what have you) as is and then build whole marketing pitch around its awful taste". Pretty much like someone trying to mass market a car without an A/C. Brilliant marketing plan, it gets noticed, everyone is going like "WTF ... what am I missing here?", but in the end when someone chooses between a handful of products, the awful tasting one won't be in the first place. I know that I personally never bought Buckley's and not likely to.

I don't entirely disagree with you. I'm not quick to reach for Buckley's (which is of course the point of the marketing), but my suspicion is that a lot of people do. Additionally, many people talk about them, which is a harder thing to achieve than most believe.

The thing that I think we have to take away from Buckley's marketing is that without that approach, they'd have a bad tasting cough medicine. Admitting that it tastes bad, on the other hand, leads us to ask, "how good does it have to be, in order for them to admit that?"

On the other hand, there are dozens of other brands of cough medicine out there, and I'm hard pressed to remember the names (or stories behind) any of them.

I always reach for Buckley's, out of all the cough medicines I've ever had to use it genuinely works the best. However, I hate black liquorice, but will readily take a shot of sambuca or ouzo, so perhaps I'm not the best person to say I don't mind the bad taste.

Moving from the UK to NA has taught me one thing, everyone appears to want an incentive to take medicine here. It's bizarre. Anyone with any minor upset is encouraged to down a pill that tastes like cherry or some other asinine flavour. I understand why childrens medication is flavoured, but adult medication, really? Honestly people need to grow up. Buckley's has something going for it, you're disincentivized to take it so you're actually going to allow your body to do the job it's supposed to.

When I grew up, the most flavorful 'medicine' I remember was Flintstone vitamins. I believe I got lucky at ~13 when kids cough syrup started getting popular, which incidentally had reduced paracetamol levels (acetaminophen) for children, unlike the flavoured medicines marketed in NA.

> there are dozens of other brands of cough medicine out there, and I'm hard pressed to remember the names (or stories behind) any of them.

There's no need to remember that, they are all made from the same ingredients. Just pick the first cocktail that matches your symptoms, and that's it.

That's how we should make our choices, but (sadly) most of us aren't that clear headed when we buy. The purchases we make are informed by how certain brands resonate with us.

You could argue me this point, but I'd only ask when you last ordered a cola that wasn't a Pepsi or a Coke. The fact is, brands are powerful.

Not so long ago (last November) I released my book Speak Human: Outmarket the Big Guys by Getting Personal. In it I look at how small can be an advantage, and how small companies can market more effectively. So far the reviews have been really strong, and I've been receiving notes from readers saying that they've found it helpful.

In an effort to introduce the book to a wider audience, I started creating these brief 2 minute videos, which discuss notions presented in the book. If you have a moment (or, preferably, 2) this might be worth a look. :-)

Are these 2 minute videos a way of marketing your book differently like you discuss in this particular video? (no sarcasm here, I'm generally curious on how you've been using this advice to market your own book :) )

The videos are largely an experiment. Our blog (ideasonideas) gets a fair bit of traffic, but it's more centered around the design community. As such, we wanted to try another venue to present the ideas in the book.

I've gone into more detail on the marketing of the book (if you're interested) in this post: http://www.ideasonideas.com/2009/12/my-money-where-my-mouth-.... It's really a big test: put out a good product, share it, and explore what methods resonate (and adapt when things don't work). I suppose it's like "agile" marketing. ;-)

Although the videos aren't wildly "different," I believe the message of the book largely is. In my opinion, many of the marketing texts and resources out there are big on promises but perhaps deliver more checklists than methods. This book is really more concentrated on looking at how small operations can really market themselves--and how things like social media can make that easier.

I realize that I've typed a fair bit here, and I'm not sure if I've answered your question. Does the above make sense?

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