Aiza Day
Various marketing gimmicks have had a huge impact on selling a product or service. Yet, all are designed to be able to attract customers and convert them into sales eventually. From mascots, dramas, and even subtle marketing, each strategy targets individuals with varying preferences. Still, one of the best ideas that marketers have been using is stealth marketing.
What is Stealth Marketing?
Stealth marketing, by its name, is a strategy wherein companies can persuade their customers to buy a product without them actually telling people they are selling such. Perhaps, you have seen movies using this, but you may be unconscious about it. For instance, Fast & Furious; did you know that the car brands used in the movie were major sponsors and garnered a lot of screen time in the movie? Hence, it is a form of marketing that uses celebrity partners to endorse products using mass media, TV, print ads, or etc. to get the word out about a product.
Nevertheless, you might think of it as being thought overnight —- but no. Being a successful stealth marketer needs skills, networks, and even bright ideas to rise above the industry. If you’re trying to become one, you may remember these tips for you to become a great stealth marketer:
Steal Marketing Ideas
The most important aspect to board a successful marketing strategy is your abundance of ideas. Being able to make creative advertising that comes subtle but still promotes a certain brand comes as a unique marketing strategy for companies and clients too. Your ideas must come in short and simple, but still impactful to send the word out to everybody. For example, the Emergency Exit Sign by Axe. While the sign isn’t like the commercials we see with a story, it still entails how the product works; being very irresistible to the opposite sex whenever you use their body spray. It pools a new narrative to the exit sign and still creates a mini-story in relation to the body spray.
Genius, right? Therefore, being able to think out of the box and make gimmicks can make a buzz, where you will not even make an effort with spreading the word because clients already do it for you.
Know your Product
Always make sure you fully grasp the idea of the product you are marketing. Not knowing on what market you are selling will make it less effective, as the idea will not overflow, lest you might also use it in an inappropriate setting. By this, stealth marketers will be capable of creating marketing paraphernalia that looks and sounds good to their target market, rather than marketing without any target at all. Hence, it’s impossible to be a stealth marketer and just spread positivity about a product; companies are more than their surface.
For example, if you want to market cars, you must be able to partner up with movies that feature cars too. In Fast & Furious’ case, they featured fast car brands in the movie series. Innately, it’s part of their scenes, but it’s a way of marketing fast-engined cars.
Be Subtle
What sets stealth marketers different from the others is their indefinite gimmicks. At the surface, it may come off as vague, but it gets people thinking, making you a top-of-mind when they’re thinking about the products or services you’re selling. Therefore, make your ads unique.
IKEA Staircase —— We all know that IKEA sells aesthetically beautiful home products which also can save space. The company launched a stealth marketing wherein they transformed their main staircase and placed stickers on it. The stickers have 3D pictures of clothes, conveying to clients that they have cabinets that can effectively organize your clothes (one in many that they offer).
American Cancer Society Coffin Blankets —— Skin cancer awareness is something we must not disregard. In this campaign by the American Cancer Society, they distributed towels for beachgoers who are basking under the heat to get a good tan. However, the towels are shaped like coffins, which puts a message that “overexposure to the sun causes skin cancer killing 20 people every day”. Maybe not too subtle, but hey! It was a good reminder.
Expand your Network
Making ideas turn into reality is done by networking. Knowing people in the industry and partnering up with them can get you to a good start, where they can introduce you to a lot of people around the marketing business. These individuals can make your identity known, thus paving a way for you to pool on clients and sell your stealth marketing ideas to them. And oh, by the way, make sure you come in presentably always, prepare your visuals and ideas, and of course your business cards so they can contact you anytime.
Being a successful stealth marketer requires patience, passion, perseverance, and good people skills. These are essential components for you to sell yourself and be known in the industry. You must be able to get a grip of the skills interdependently; by then you might be able to rise above others, work competitively, and be successful in the stealth marketing industry.
Photo by Abolfazl eslami on Unsplash
