Two months ago, I told you about my Patagonia jacket. Last month, I told you about my favorite skydiving companies. This month, I want to tell you about my deodorant; my stupidly overpriced natural deodorant that costs $12 bucks!!
Before I go any further, I should say that I’m not a treehugger-type, but I do try to stay healthy. I’m also not rich, but don’t believe in false economy. After reading how much bad $h*% was in my Gillette Endurance Gel Speed Stick (Aluminum Zirconium Octachlorohydrex Gly Anti-Perspirant/Deodorants), I thought I might actually be on the path to slowly killing myself (aside from all the other unhealthy things I do and consume).
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While talking about it in the office, my colleague Melissa mentioned that she recently had similar concerns (apparently this is a thing that people worry about now) and purchased deodorant from a company called Native. She gave me a coupon code and I ordered it shortly thereafter. What happened next made me a sucker for great marketing!
After ordering my Native deodorant THIS IS WHAT APPEARED IN MY INBOX:
Do you know what I did when I read this? I smiled. I received an e-mail and I smiled despite paying double for a stick of deodorant! I’d call this a marketing win, and provided they don’t screw up my order (they didn’t) and the product actually works (it does), I’m well on my way to becoming a loyalist to this company.
Native has differentiated themselves from their competition by speaking to its customers in a more personal way as opposed to slick marketing. In other words they’re unmarketing. The creativity in how they spoke to me made me feel more connected with them. Had they written their e-mail like every other confirmation e-mail, this month’s article in Blue Skies Mag would have been about an entirely different topic.
The Takeaway
So, what’s the takeaway here? Native was able to make something as simple as deodorant… interesting. What if we were to do this within an industry that actually is interesting, like skydiving?
If I were a DZO or DZM or any business owner, I would use this example to think about how we can be more creative with our communications with customers. As I’ve stated many times, the best marketing connects with people and in the case of Native, they connected with me. I just put my second order in!
Remember, the best marketing is personal. Sell who you are as well as what you do!
Wanna talk about marketing (it’s my favorite topic in the whole wide world)? E-mail me (james@amazethecustomer.com) and let’s talk shop!
This article was published in the June issue of Blue Skies Magazine.
