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

CUSTOMER SERVICE DOESN’T STOP AT 5 P.M. ON A FRIDAY

Isn’t it amazing how most problems in your home happen late at night or on the weekends? The toilet overflows, the heating stops working on a grim winter’s day, the fridge goes on the fritz, and the cable is scrambled, on the only two days that you don’t have work. Is it part of a massive cover-up or an elaborate ruse to get us to pay those premium overtime rates?

Turns out Murphy’s Law doesn’t discriminate between customers and marketers nowadays . . .

Figure 10.4 Motrin’s 30-Second Spot About “Babywearing”

Source: Johnson & Johnson.

In early 2009, Kathy Widmer clocked out on a Friday afternoon after an undoubtedly satisfying week in the office. Kathy was a content marketing executive. She had a brand-spanking-new campaign on television, print, and no doubt radio—the big three, no less. She had gone through all the due diligence, dotted her i’s, and crossed her t’s. In her particular neck of the woods, no campaign could ever be vetted—or even conceived—without extensive research, all of which was specifically crafted to deliver cutting-edge, proprietary consumer insights, trends and, truths. These would (hopefully) in turn become the backbone of a messaging thrust for Motrin.

In this fortunate case, Kathy was banking on the cool trend of babywearing: the practice of wearing or carrying a baby or child in a sling or other ...