Studies in Big Mistakes in Marketing

We recently went to successful marketing folks that we know and asked them a simple question, “What was the biggest marketing mistake you ever have seen?”  The answers that followed were a great study in how good ideas can go very wrong and what we all need to learn to try and avoid them:

Rama Beerfas, Chief Solutions Specialist, Lev Promotions:
Although this was not my client, one of the worst marketing tactics I ever saw was at a community event for families. The event had activities for kids, vendor booths, music, food and more. One of the vendor booths was a mortuary that was giving away a promotional product. Unfortunately, they chose to give away flying discs (the branded term is frisbees). For their type of business, it was a completely inappropriate item and caused several negative comments amongst the crowd.

Shawne Duperon, Media & Gossip Expert, Shawnetv.com:
In an interview to constantly say your website and the name of your business..
Like…
At ShawneTV we believe, blah blah blah
or
that’s a great idea,,, go to my website at blah blah blah.

Nope, don’t do it. Every time you plug your site or your company name, you’re telling the reporter you don’t trust them, that they suck and you’re going to plug yourself.

Smart marketers let the reporter do all the plugging. When you understand media, it all happens quite naturally.

Danielle Downs, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, EcoDiscoveries:
EcoDiscoveries has made the mistake of doing a tabletop show just because it was free. Free is not always good. The real cost to do the show was tremendous as far as man power and time not working on viable projects. We also ruffled feathers of potential customers because the show design was a nuisance. The event was held in a busy area downtown, and we spent 4 hours trying to call people to our booth to purchase product who simply did not have time to shop. The walk-through traffic perceived our company as small-time. Few people were able to discern what our company offered and that we are a local business.

Joyce L. Gioia, President/CEO, The Herman Group:
Once upon a time in the mid 90s, my partner decided that we needed a video series. Without conducting research, we invested $80,000 in a series of videos conducted in a talk-show format. We may have sold 10—if that many. The problem was that no one wanted to sit still for 30minutes at a time to watch them—especially not the small business owners to whom they were directed.

Trey Burley:
One time I sent something out for a client on a coconut.

At the time I was living in Key West, and there were coconuts everywhere.  I took my clients information, wrote it on the coconut and put it in the mail.  By the time the coconut got to where it was going it had been smashed and milk was leaking out everywhere.

Most of the message was smeared and couldn’t be read. However, the phone number could still be made out.
The recipient called the contact number, and my client did receive an interview, but the topic of conversation was mainly, ‘why did you send a coconut?’

While the coconut made a statement, it wasn’t the statement that we wanted to make.