Beyoncé and Marketers

Michael Barber presenting “Making Lemonade: How Beyonce Can Teach the Modern Marketer to Rule the World” to Social Media Day Jacksonville
Michael Barber presenting “Making Lemonade: How Beyonce Can Teach the Modern Marketer to Rule the World” to Social Media Day Jacksonville

I was a fan of Michael Barber back when I first heard him speak at a pro seminar for MarketingProfs: “Hello, It’s Me… The Adele Guide to Doing Email” with moderator, Kerry Gorgone.

It was a real treat to hear him speak in-person about “Making Lemonade: How Beyoncé Can Teach the Modern Marketer to Rule the World” for Social Media Day conference in Jacksonville, FL.

You don’t have to be a Beyonce fan to truly appreciate these “songs” and Michael’s tips.

Disclosure, I was so inspired by his talk that I wrote the worst notes because I was so engaged with the stories he shared. Here goes:

Slay –

Look at insights.

48% of people travel with a child to Los Angeles. In an old Motel 6 building, The Magic Castle Hotel completed a low budget remodel of their building. That included adding an insanely bright color all over. Key thing: they noticed red phones in the pool area that were already there. They used that as an opportunity to cater to families.

How? What they did was create a sign that promoted having popsicles delivered to the pool. This remodeled hotel is now #2 tip advisor in the county, about $287 per night.

XO – (be close to us)

Don’t make your customer work hard to find you.

Delta airlines knows if passengers within the plane ride are late to their next flight, or if they have 5 minutes to get to their next gate, and/or if they are on time to their destination.

They cater to their demands, if the person who has already missed their connecting flight, they can book them another flight during the current flight. They can let the folks who have 5 minutes left to get to their next gate off the current flight first.

Valentina with Michael Barber after he presented “Making Lemonade: How Beyonce Can Teach the Modern Marketer to Rule the World” to Social Media Day Jacksonville
Valentina with Michael Barber after he presented “Making Lemonade: How Beyonce Can Teach the Modern Marketer to Rule the World” to Social Media Day Jacksonville

Deja-Vu, Always –

Same experience, always

Examples:

  1. Starbucks: use the app, it is same payment no matter where you are in the world
  2. IKEA – same floorplan all over the globe
  3. Bonobos – same voice, intonation, content on all communications

Be the best we got—

He used the example of Lowe’s knowing your past purchases if the item is hard to find and how you can get turn by turn directions to find it within the store.

Another funny example is paper towels in public restrooms that pop up.

Surprise & Delight –

In Portland, OR at Hotel Monaco, a teddy bear on the bed greets you with the cutest sign for you Star War fans, “May the forest be with you”

It’s the little things –

The Nest product is a smoke detector. It’s worth $216! Here is why you want to invest in this item vs the $16 one at the store. The lights turn on when you are in the room using it. It checks the batteries by itself, it lights up.

Another quick example is how the Dropbox app can scan anything to your mobile app. Convenience.

Amtrak knows that 40% of people buy within a day of traveling, so their website has the expected traveling date automatically set to within 24 hours.

Summary Slide from Michael Barber presenting about “Making Lemonade: How Beyonce Can Teach the Modern Marketer to Rule the World” to Social Media Day Jacksonville
Summary Slide from Michael Barber presenting about “Making Lemonade: How Beyonce Can Teach the Modern Marketer to Rule the World” to Social Media Day Jacksonville

Get crazy in love with people –

Empathic branding.

Local Domino’s store would deliver to a customer that pretty much as obsessed with their product. Perhaps ordered 40 pizzas a week, who knows. Example used here: How ordering Domino’s pizza daily saved a man’s life.

The delivery man went to this house to check on him because he hadn’t placed an order and discovered he was lying on the floor. He had a brain aneurysm. That delivery man saved his life!

Southwest Airlines employee delivered shoes to a woman who had lost her luggage and who had trained extensively for a marathon. The employee bought the pair of shoes, showed up at the race and helped her complete it by delivering them in a timely matter.

As you can see in the examples above, there are many ways us Marketers or even Small Business Owners can think like Beyoncé next time.

If you are interested in my next speaking engagement, you can see my upcoming list based on social media platform here.

 

 

Leave a Reply