Creating Customer Demand (not just awareness)

I heard some wisdom while listening to Marketing over Coffee's podcast the other day. I'm going to paraphrase it. Hopefully the intent of the message won't be lost.

What I heard was that it can take a long time to market goods or services through new media if you are only selling your brand. You need to show that there is a need for what you're selling.

This idea struck me because I sell some great products at amazing prices but I don't see how consumers will find out about them. I understand that I need my brand to showcase my competence, that I'm a professional. But it seems like the long way of doing things.

I admit that I don't know how to measure the effect of my blogs and tweets at the national level. Locally, I do see relevance. I'm hearing from locals. It amazes me that Twitter brings me face to face with people that are close by. It's a classic "who'da thunk?".

My products are for IT people. I still consider myself in that group and I wonder about the ways that new media will help me reach these people. I haven't come up with many good answers. (thank goodness that Tricycle is helping me!)

I did get a glimmer of hope today while driving to a customer. I've been listening to 10 Golden Rules' podcast since June 20th. Today, I listened to episode 31, where Jay Berkowitz (@jayBerkowitz) interviews David Meerman Scott (@dmscott).

David referenced a fresh pasta company in Boston that used different methods of reaching their audience. (expect more about this in another post) When David first mentioned them, he talked about the need for fresh organic pasta. Now I'm a cook, but I wrote it off. It's easy to make pasta and if I wanted organic fresh pasta, I'd make it.

But thing that got me was that this company gave free recipe books in pdf format and made YouTube videos about Alfredo sauce etc. They created a demand for their product. Let me say that again... They created demand for their product. Furthermore, by providing recipes and training, they improved the product's chances of success. I'd buy their stuff if I still lived in Mass.

The path from brand awareness to the bottom line is shorter and straighter than I thought.

What do you think? Leave us a post or bug us at www.acmetechworks.com (please forgive the website construction, we'll have something really cool in a few weeks!)