I posted this on another "marketing" board and thought that some of you folks would enjoy reading it also. It has to do with HOW I get some of my promotion ideas;
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Some years ago, when I was living near Aspen, Colorado, I was in a realtor's office and a guy comes in to talk to another realtor. I overhear the realtor tell him he, "couldn't place an aerial photo of his ranch on a brochure because he didn't know anyone who could take an aerial photo".

I stood up and yelled over the desks, "I can take aerials! What do you need!"

Honestly, I didn't know an aerial from a pinon pine BUT...I knew I could "learn". I mean, what's to know? You get in a plane...aim your camera down and click the shutter.

Ha! I found out later, there's a "little more" to it than that. But, at the time I just "volunteered".

The realtor asked me what I charge and my "trained marketing brain went into instant sales mode" and I told him, I'd call him later in private.

Well, to shorten the story, I started doing aerial photos for realtors. Then (here's the reason for this post) as my pilot and I were flying back one day after shooting a number of castles...I looked down and thought, "Hey! Why wouldn't those folks with "regular" homes not want an aerial of their properties?

So...I started clicking away...trying to get individual homes in each shot.

I took about 300 shots.

My plan was to match the photos with the houses and send a copy of the photo on a postcard to the home owners asking if they'd like an enlargement for their wall.

And when I got them developed I'm thinking, "HOW in the world am I going to match these photos with the houses?"

So...I had 300 GOOD aerial photos of homes but I had no idea WHAT the address was of any of them so I could get them into the hands of the RIGHT people.

I thought, "Maybe I could visit the area and try and determine which house goes with which photo." Naw! Too many.

So...as I usually do with my "ideas", I "placed this one on a memory hook" for future reference.

Then, about a week later, as I was having coffee at the local donut place, I happened to overhear the Pharmacist say he, "wished he had a way to get people into his store". None of his sales ads had done much and he was in "need of a promotion idea".

Well...all of a sudden...my subconscious mind kicked into gear as I envisioned those 300 3x5 photos on the back wall of his drug store...with local homeowners looking over the photos for THEIR house.

WOW! THAT was IT!

So...I rushed home...grabbed the box of photos...plunked the box down in front of the drug store owner and told him,
"Here's how you can fill your store with people. These are aerial photos of local homes. I will mount them on boards across the back of the store."

I grabbed a napkin and wrote out an ad HE will run that says, "AN AERIAL PHOTO HAS BEEN TAKEN OF YOUR HOME! COME ON DOWN TO ELJEBEL DRUGS AND SEE YOUR HOME FROM THE AIR!"

Well...I thought the guy would come unglued. He got up and hugged me and said, "Let's do it!"

So...on Thursday (our paper only came out on Thurs) he runs a big ad with some sample photos and the words I gave him.

I had some phone calls to make on Friday morn and around 10am the druggist secretary calls me and tells me to, come on down to the store, I would NOT believe what is happening.

I jumped in my car and as I turned onto main street I could see people lined up down the block from the drug store which was on the corner. As I neared the drug store I could NOT believe what I was seeing. Here was what seemed like a couple hundred people lined up waiting to get into the drugstore.

I had made a display along the back wall with all the 3x5's. These I sold for $5 * ...8x10's were $45 etc...which they could order by filling in the Order Form.

* The 3x5's were FREE if they bought something ELSE from the store.

In the history of the druggist's business career he had not had a more successful promotion.

He sold a ton of his stuff...I sold a bunch of aerials and we were ALL happy.

This thing lasted for about 4 weeks because every week I would take more photos and put them on the back wall every Thurs eve...for Friday's business.

So...I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did of remembering and relating it to you. This refers to the BASICS of marketing;
"Find out what people WANT...and find a way to sell it to them!"

Don Alm




Some of my unique money-makers