All Marketers are Thieves

[thejenn]

Authored by: Stoney deGeyter

Full Text: http://www.searchengineguide.com/degeyter/006192.html

A Snippet:

"I think it's also true that all marketers are thieves. A few weeks back Chevy started an "Employee Discount" marketing campaign where us average Joes can get a car for the same price as Chevy employees. Guess what, it worked!"

[BKCB]

Hey Stoney, good article, but I think you are being a little "tongue in cheek" about using the words "What have you STOLEN lately?". I am sure you are as honest as they come, so don't forget that "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". It's just when original concepts, products, or writings are copied "word for word" or are copyrighted or patented somehow, that there is a problem. When it comes right down to it, there really is "nothing new under the sun" (just different versions and circumstances).

My curiosity is "killing my cat", so I gotta ask, what marketing idea did you "steal" from Burger King?

[St0n3y]

Hi BKCB,

You're right, I am being a bit tongue-in-cheek using the word "stolen". I don't believe in stealing, but when there is truly nothing new under the sun, every concept or idea comes from somewhere else first. It's the job of a good marketer to take what works elsewhere and find a way to apply it to your own stuff uniquely. The Ford duplication of Chevy's sale is a great example of that. You see many more examples of this in movies. I'm not talking about remakes, which studios already own, but dueling movies of the same topic. Remember Dante's Peak and Volcano? Volcano was in production at a studio so another studio rushed Dante's Peak out first. It got all the attention and Volcano (which I thought was far superior) flopped. But that's another story.

Advertising and marketing is full of examples of ideas being "stolen" or maybe a better word is "re-imaged" for other purposes.

As for what I "re-imaged" from Burger King? Read this post about the BK concept I stole and then you can see the my own implementation of that at www.polepositionmarketing.com. Look for the bulb headed dude. He's on several pages and we are working on putting him on more. It's just a fun way to make a point using a completely different "voice". You'll also notice that all his sayings end using our tag line.

[BKCB]

Stoney,

Nice, new, complimentary branding!