Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

WILL THE NEXT “BIGGEST WINNER” BE YOU?

It all begins with what you can control as opposed to what you cannot control. You cannot control what happens when you punt your messages into the ether that is the media market. Granted, you’ll sink millions of dollars into research, planning, and production to craft the perfect 30-second elevator pitch. You’ll even carefully choose where that message runs, based on meticulous evaluation against indexes and weighted targeting. And yet you’ll still see a Ford F-150 paired up against a commercial for tampons. So much for being in control!

But it goes way further than that. Take the Olive Garden, for example. They created a television commercial advertising that their chefs are trained at an Olive Garden Culinary Institute in . . . wait for it . . . Tuscany. That’s Tuscany, Italy, as opposed to the Tuscany Suites & Casino in Las Vegas. They even launched a promotion whereby individuals could win trips to the Institute (it’s real, people!). According to one comment on a popular food hub called CHOW:

McD’s has a hamburger university, it doesn’t make their food any good. Given that most of the stuff prepared by OG comes out of a can, box or freezer bag, what exactly do you think the curriculum is in Italy? Wouldn’t you feel bad after going to Italy and sneaking out of the dorm for a real Italian meal only to go back to the USA to serve what they serve?

In other words: you can SAY whatever you want, but it doesn’t necessarily mean people ...