Going back to August of 2002 my old insurance company had a big celebration in Las Vegas NV. Part of the fun included a couple of nights of live entertainment. One night was a great band and the other night there were 3 comedians, one of which no one had ever heard of, a ventriloquist. Personally I love comedy, but a ventriloquist? I had visions of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, which I did not find very entertaining personally. But, it was a free night of fun, food, drinks and live entertainment, I am game. Turned out this guy was incredibly funny and had one of the best marketing ideas I had ever seen.
The ventriloquist’s name was Jeff Dunham, who has went on to become in my opinion and many others the best ventriloquist of all time. At the time he only had a couple of dummies, one he still uses in his act by the name of Peanut. This dummy along with Walter had us all in stitches. He is such a talented and funny comedian ventriloquist but had yet to be really discovered. However, during his act he did what I thought was one of the best marketing ideas I had ever seen. It still resonates with me thirteen years later.
When performing with Peanut, he would make fun of his own name saying he had too many “f’s” in Jeff. He had an unused “f” and Peanut started pronouncing it with two “f’s”. He called himself Jeff fa fa. Then he made fun of Dunham as if it was pronounced Dun-Ham the other white meat. Then he repeated this jeffdunham.com in such a hysterical way that no one realized he was repeating his website www.jeffdunham.com over and over and over until you could not possibly forget his name, spell it wrong or not remember his website. I believe almost all of us ended up checking out his website that night because of this best marketing idea I had ever seen. I believe this marketing idea helped him create his first video that launched his career in 2006 to the fame he has today.
I am always trying to think of clever ideas like Jeff Dunham of how to stand out from the crowd, but his was pure genius. We entrepreneurs are all guilty of being reactive with our marketing versus being proactive. If our competition has a radio ad, we think we need one or my competitor has a billboard, maybe I should buy one. We should be proactive like Jeff Dunham and think outside of our own box and be proactive marketers.
“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”—Peter Drucker
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at www.freedigitalphotos.net
Tim Wilhoit is owner/principal of Your Friend 4 Life Insurance Agency in Nashville, TN. He is a family man, father of 3, entrepreneur, insurance agent, life insurance broker, salesman, sales trainer, recruiter, public speaker, blogger and team leader with over 27 years of experience in sales and marketing in the insurance and beverage industries.
If you’re a nobody entering the scene with your first startup, you can feel like you’ve got a long way to go before you get any type of clout in your industry. One of the best ways to connect with industry experts is to do a round up post and post it on your company blog.
Ask three questions to twenty experts in your field, not all will reply, but many will. Write up a blog post with the questions and answers. If executed correctly, you can get many of the interviewed experts to share the post on social media platforms which will spread awareness and traffic for your brand.
Pro Tip: Ask questions that are not too broad, not too specific so that you can get a variety of different responses from the experts you interview.
Lynn, that is a great suggestion that any entrepreneur can do with out any cost other than time. Thank you for sharing that.
Tim,
You are the best motivator with all your tips and advise online! Love it!
Thank you for reminding me of this Tim! I so remember that Las Vegas Trip and Jeff Dunham. And yes, we all checked out his site after that. If I ever see him in person I will tell him we all remember his ad tactic!
Take care Friend!
I love your Logo by the way!
Dianna Keith
Thank you Diana, that was a great trip and certainly a great show. I wish you the happiest and most prosperous 2016!
Younger, and inexperienced, entrepreneurs tend to focus on the easy online marketing wins and focus less on face-to-face networking. Trade shows in your industry offer a plethora of opportunities to make connections with peers and new customers. Most trade show attendees skew older in age, so it’s an excellent place to connect with seasoned business owners that can help you boost your career.
Lynn, also building those networking relationships are equally as important. Joining a BNI chapter or Chamber of Commerce and building those relationships and referral sources take little money but time.
We all need to be unique in what we do. It is the only thing that can stand us out. If we copy others, the best we may achieve is what they achieved but if we invent our own style we shall achieve what we want to achieve.
Very well stated and spot on Solomon, thank you for sharing.
TIm,
What do think about the concept at bankonyourself.com?
John, I am only vaguely familiar with Pamela Yellen and her marketing platform Bank on Yourself. It is a great marketing campaign and I am sure the sales for whole life have went up because of it. Is that the best fit? Probably not, but it is a great fit for some. She is to be commended for what she has built.
I agree that was a genius idea for Jeff Dunham. Although I didn’t recognize it as a marketing win at first, I definitely do now! Great parallel thanks sharing.
Rachel, that is the genius of it. Great marketing is when you are being advertised to without even realizing it. Thank you for sharing that.
Remains your family’s friend ,even after you .
Name repetition equals name recognition!