Feature Articles

 

 

Why Don't We Do it on the Road:
From computer chips to coffins, five very different companies show how mobile-marketing programs can increase sales.

By: Charles Pappas

 

Exhibitor - 2007—“Drive thy business,” said Ben Franklin, “or it will drive thee.” That advice is as relevant in the 21st century as it was in the 18th. Today, many companies follow Franklin’s advice and travel to see their business-to-business customers via mobile-marketing campaigns.
           
According to mobile-marketing consultant Larry Borden of the Conshohocken, PA,-based The Borden Agency LLC, the true value of road shows can be summed up in one word: control. “Road shows make a potent strategy because they’re controlled environments,” says Borden, Who helped produce road shows for Jack Daniel’s, Milwaukee Electronic Tool Corp., and Avon Products Inc. “You use your own rooms, you see only the people you invite, you focus on specific client needs, you suffer minimal distortions and there are no competitors.”

 

David Rogers, Co-author with Bernd H. Schmitt and Karen Vrotsos of There’s No Business That’s Not Show Business: Marketing in an Experience Culture (Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2003) points out that businesses are turning to mobile marketing for two reasons. “You can reach a highly targeted audience,” he says, “and reach in them in a prolonged, interactive situation. That’s simply not possible with traditional advertising.”

 

The five companies featured here have each found innovative ways to reach their customers through mobile marketing. Kozinets suggests we think of them as Weinermobile heirs to the legacy left by their ancestor, Oscar Mayer. Since 1936 that road show has excited devotion and affection in customers’ hearts—and brand loyalty in their brains. “Like the Weinermobile,” says Kozinets, “the physical presence of road shows provide the opportunity to deepen your brand community.”

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