Naked and Afraid Marketing

If you've ever tuned into the Discovery Channel and found two people running around the wilderness wearing nothing but a necklace and some handmade leaf garments, you've seen "Naked and Afraid," a show that pairs one man and one woman (strangers to one another) in a remote location with no food, water, or clothes. Their challenge: to survive for 21 days using one well-selected tool each and their own skills and survival instincts.

While we're not at all interested in sleeping on tree limbs, killing and preparing our own protein, and boiling and drinking water that looks like mud, we are intrigued by the notion that each survivalist is permitted to bring one essential tool. For "Naked and Afraid" contestants, that tends to be a machete, a fire starter of some sort, or a pot for boiling water.

Imagine you were dropped into a marketing challenge with only one tool at your disposal. What would you choose? Right now you have at your ready phones--desktop and cell, tint books, competitors files, sales reports, surveys and customer feedback, PR contacts, product and service specs, marketing collateral, and a slew of technical and tactical treasures on your computer that we haven't even touched on.

Could you pick just one?

Handling Hot Stuff:

Why Client Lists are Life Savers

If you chose your client list as your only marketing tool, good for you. Every marketer knows that nothing is more valuable than the contact information of people who've already established relationships with your company. These are the folks who opted-in to your communication channels, who have expressed interest in something your company offers or does, or, better yet, who have already established relationships or at least buying histories with your company. These are the people who know you and are most likely to respond when you call on them with an offer. 

But without a good product or service to offer them, what can you do with a list?

Well you can get to know the clients better. We don't mean the stuff you usually focus on: how often they order or donate, which offers they typically respond to, and whether they prefer to receive direct mail or email notices. We mean get to know their current needs better.

Has anything changed on your end or theirs in the past year, two years, ten years that makes your solutions less ideal? Have their tastes evolved? Are their resources still the same?

The more you focus on what's prompting them to buy, the more prepared you'll be to provide a solution for them. Only then can you turn your attention to creating a stellar and useful product or service. Use this opportunity, this time spent with nothing but your client list, to develop something new.

And when you do, involve your clients in the product development process. Do it as early as you can. Get their feedback so you can make adjustments now, not later after you've invested unnecessary time and money on a feature or material that just doesn't cut it.

Cutting to the Quick:

 Why Tools RuleWhy Tools Rule 

If you'd choose as your only marketing tool your organization's star product or service, good for you, too. Like a machete or other good knife, it can help you do many things. You can use it to help build your "house." You can create other tools with it. And it will certainly help you put food on the table. But there's one problem. You have no one to sell it to. Sound like a lost cause?

Actually, it's cause for creativity.

Take a good look at that product, that "machete," if you would, in your hand. What do you have? What problem does it solve? Whose problem does it solve? How does your product or service solve that problem?

You most likely already know the answers to all of these questions, but you may find that you don't think about them, we mean really think about them, as frequently as you should. Now's a great time to do so! 

If you're stuck in the marketing wilderness with nothing but your product, then you need a strategy. Sounds pretty basic, right? Well, if we're going "Naked and Afraid" marketing here, then we need to stick to the basics.

Think about it. If you take away all the marketing bells and whistles--the social media accounts, the fancy website, the custom videos, the high-tech trade show display, the full-page ads--and focus on simply creating a clear message and a clean, compelling design, what would that look like?

No individual can survive forever with just a tool and a dream, and fortunately, no marketer has to, either. But stripping your resources and your mindset down to a more basic, manageable volume--even for just a short time--can challenge your skillset and help you regain your focus and confidence.

The Case for Naked Marketing

Emily Perry makes the case for bare marketing in her October 20, 2014, article, "Keep it Simple: How Successful Brands Have Perfected Minimalist Marketing," written for ContentEqualsMoney.com, a U.S.-based online content writing service. In the article, Perry says that getting to the point quickly and efficiently while still providing entertainment will not only help you simplify your consumers' choice, but it will also help establish trust with them if you provide a "no-frills demonstration" of how your product or company helps people. Furthermore, keeping marketing minimalistic enables you to tell a story about your brand and to provide valuable information.

Very truly yours,

Milt