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Mr. Marketing: Controlling how the cookie crumbles

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By Rob Weinberg

Regular readers know I’m all about finding different ways to position yourself in the marketplace.

Which is why, to celebrate National Girl Scout Cookie Day (Friday), I’m applauding Taryn Kilgore’s marketing efforts.

I met the personable 17-year-old as she sold Thin Mints in the Rancho Bernardo High School Performing Arts Center lobby after Flashback — an entertainment Tour de Force featuring singing, dancing, and a raucous good time courtesy of the school’s very talented Musicians’ Club.

Her initiative was refreshing, her product offering at the location unique. She told me she planned to visit SDSU during the Superbowl, going door to door through the dorms looking for groups of munched-out football fans.

As Sir Francis Bacon advised; “If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain.”

Ms. Kilgore’s strategy seems solid. “If there’s a group and one person buys, there’s a very good chance that others in the room will also buy,” she told me.

So big groups of hungry people egged on by peer pressure will buy her product, with no competition in sight. Brilliant!

This year 2.3 million Girl Scouts will raise $700 million selling 175 million boxes of cookies. Most girls will knock on doors or sell individual boxes in front of grocery stores.

While Taryn Kilgore may do those things too, she’s found ways to stand out while hustling a commodity item. In at least these two scenarios she owns the marketplace.

Smart girl!

Now examine your business. You’ve got competition, and the marketplace is noisy. So why do you continue doing things the way you’ve always done them?

Let’s all learn from this young woman and look beyond traditional business approaches. By thinking a little differently, we’ll all increase opportunities for growing the bottom line in both the short- and long-term.

Call it thinking outside the cookie box. Or re-examining priorities. Call it what you will, but it all amounts to the same thing. By knowing your product, understanding your marketplace, and being willing to try a new approach, you’re going to be able to set yourself apart and create situations where none would otherwise exist.

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.

Mr. Marketing bought two boxes of cookies because they were in the right place at the right time. Contact him at www.askmrmarketing.com to see if any made it through the weekend.

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