The Orel Asformas Guide to Unorthodox Marketing
Today’s marketing world has become completely limitless. But people sometimes miss out on the ‘darker’ side of this limitlessness: Rules do not apply in this battlefield anymore. There’s nothing that’s considered unsuitable or forbidden when planning marketing strategies, and those who try to play by some kind of rules discover quite fast that they’ve been left behind — simply because there are none.
The solution may seem simple — to think outside the box. But in this reality it’s not enough to just think outside the box. You need to live, breathe and generally be outside the box. This is where unorthodox marketing, the strategy that’s driving the marketing world crazy, comes into play.
It’s not just about sales, it’s about survival
The name unorthodox marketing pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? It means you need to do exactly the opposite of what others are doing, right? Wrong. It means you need to redefine how things are done — and you need to keep doing just that at all times since it’s no longer about selling another TV set, it’s about your electrical appliance store staying relevant.
Orel Asformas is one of the key players in this game today. His philosophy in a nutshell? “The more bizarre your strategy is, the better”. If people are not exposed to you in a situation where they feel ‘wowed’, your strategy wasn’t good enough and your effort won’t last. Still with us but confused? Good. Orel has some superb examples to show you what he means:
- No boundaries
Since there are no rules to this game, almost nothing should be considered unethical or prohibited. You need to create a buzz around you, and you need not think about what means are OK to reach that goal. All’s fair in marketing and war. For example, a restaurant owner stages an incident where a diner — a female one — is verbally and physically attacked by another diner. The restaurant owner then heroically ‘saves the day’ by protecting the assaulted diner.
The profit here is doubled — the restaurant becomes known, because people talk about the place where the incident happened. Next time you want to go out and eat, there is one place you’ve heard of (and it doesn’t matter how). Aside from that, he himself has turned into a local hero — and you want to eat at a local hero’s restaurant and support him financially, he deserves it.
2. Pointing toward emotions
Now, let’s make this strategy even more unorthodox. Let’s say that the verbal attack included racist comments against an African American diner. Once again, our hero restaurant owner saves the day by standing up for the insulted client. Imagine the buzz and the talk that is created around his restaurant as the result.
But we’re not just referring to the buzz here, it’s not just the fact that the incident has people talking. It’s also that racism is a sensitive subject that brings out emotions. These emotions will always be there, and the restaurant will be attached in people’s memory to the emotion.
3. Limitless reach is possible
OK, let’s change the scene and move to the virtual world. Suppose the restaurant owner writes hundreds — if not thousands — of positive reviews for his restaurant online. When you see so much good feedback, it means this place has got to be a good one. You wouldn’t imagine so many reviews being fake, would you?
We are slaves to the wisdom of the crowd, whether we like it or not. If we see such a positive vibe around something, our mind automatically wants to be a part of it. The digital reality allows you to reach every god forsaken piece of land on the planet, and you know that there’s a potential diner waiting there.
4. Self-promotion is always a good start
But let’s take the former example even further. What if the restaurant owner opens his own restaurant review site? Think of the possible ways he can promote himself on his own platform. It’s not just about good reviews anymore. It’s about where they’re placed, how much exposure they get, how bad reviews are made to disappear, etc. This may seem unfair to you at first instinct, but you must remember: Fair has long stopped existing in this arena.
Bottom line
If you think you understood the rules of unorthodox marketing by now, start from the beginning. If you understand by now that the basic principle which unorthodox marketing lies upon is that rules are irrelevant — congratulations, you got the gist. The big problem is that most marketers, even self-deemed unorthodox ones, aren’t courageous enough to ‘play in order to win’ in this chaotic playground. Orel’s advice would be to make sure you find one that entices, puzzles, and yes, even frightens you.