Traditional products’ marketing & a practical advice on how to become more effective in your business (whatever field you are in).

In the weekend I and my girlfriend were on vacation on a small town (very popular as a tourist attraction). One day in a traditional tavern they gave as after lunch a shot of a traditional drink. It was a sweet liqueur which helps one to digest food. Later on that day as we wandered through the main road of the town which is full of little shops that sell traditional products and souvenirs, we found that drink (which is called Tentoura) and we both instantly bought one bottle for our relatives. It was a very impulsive purchase. The same kind of purchases has occurred to us many times in the past and surely has happened to most of the people. The point here is that one “clever” shop owner of traditional products may exploit those impulsive purchases. He/she may make a deal with tavern owners to supply them for free with Tentoura on the condition that they give each client a shot of that drink after lunch or dinner. It’s a win-win situation; both the tavern owner and the shop owner earns from that kind of strategic alliance. I firmly believe that the shop owner will boost up his/her sales. Thing here is that (I believe) it’s hard to imagine such a marketing technique if you weren’t told about (at least it didn’t occur to me).

I mention the above story because it led me to the following (and now very obvious to me) conclusions:
We often say that one should think from the customer’s perspective and get on his/her shoes to figure out more ways to service one and market to him/her. Personally I totally agree with the above statement; however how was it likely to me to think of the above (marketing) technique? I mean, ok, I am going to think from the customer’s point of view…hm …em …let’s put some ads in the town’s stations and populated places…hm… let’s post an article on traditional products in the local newspaper/magazine or website…etc. To think out of the box – off the beaten track is easy to say but sometimes hard to actually do. Just thinking from the customer’s perspective many times is not enough; one should simulate customer’s experiences: he must go on vacation (although he is in his origin), he must live and act as a customer and try the same experiences and actions. Thinking is not enough; one may need to acquire some input (feelings, thoughts, senses, impressions, etc.). How can one implement the above conclusion? Try to find out a solution/opportunity/challenge not only with thorough thoughts but by interacting with people, places, objects; get a lot of input from anything you get in contact with.