The Benefits Of Being Cheap And Broke. Success Story: Gordon Alexander's and Don Alm's Style.

Hi,
The following manuscript was sent to me over the Internet.
I just changed some "details" and came up with the title.

Simon

----begin manuscript---

I have a dear friend here in Aspen Colorado.
He can't afford hiring a top advertising agency.
For him producing cool TV commercials is out of the question .

But even if he had the resources, he wouldn't burn his money.

See, he believes that

ONLY WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING THE TRULY RESOURCEFUL MARKETING EMERGES.

"You have to be cash-strapped/broke/cheap", - this is his motto.

He makes... ice cream.

And had to introduce his new ice cream flavor.

But how, how can he find an innovative and inexpensive way to get the product noticed?

Suddenly, one of those 'AHA' moments came,

'WHY DON'T WE MAKE A MOVIE?'

And about what?

He is a strange fellow, this friend of mine.
Everything he does goes AGAINST conventional business recipes.

Here is another principle he inherited from his FATHER, another successful businessman well known in Colorado.

His father's maxim:

IF YOU WANT TO GET RICH, LOSE YOUR EGO, FORGET FOR SOME TIME ABOUT YOUR "PRODUCT".

Well, my friend decided to seek nominations of ORDINARY FOLKS DOING EXTRAORDINARY THINGS TO BETTER THEIR COMMUNITIES.

His goal was: to make a documentary about three of the most uncommon philanthropic pursuits in Colorado.

He called his campaign Citizen Cool.

The campaign was promoted in local grocery stores, and through some local websites I helped to design.

Do you want to know the response?

More than 2,000 essays were received!,
90 (!) percent of the submissions were sent over the Internet.

The movie? A friend from a small production company took care of that.

The movie will premiere at a private screening here in Aspen and the finalists will be announced at the event.

Imagine the quality of people at the event: making decisions in their lives based on their values.

It goes without saying that Radio and TV people are all over my friend's business.

And the sales are skyrocketing already.

The cost of the promotion?
$700 so far - less than you would spend on traditional advertising.

What about copycats?
My friend's company already owns the concept in consumers minds.

Here is the Citizen Cool Success Recipe:
-----------------
1. Say to yourself: I have no money for any sort of advertising.
2. Shift your focus: forget about the "stay focused on your product" obsession.
3. Plan a documentary/video/audio interview on outstanding COMMUNITY issues.
4. Document extraordinary things people do to better their communities
(seek submissions/nominations; announcing a contest is optional)
5. Be good at NAMES - name your event around the name of a well-established success
(Citizen Kane movie - Citizen Cool in our case)
5. Plan media attention right from the START, forget about tie-ins/angles and stuff AFTER someone ELSE creates HIS event)

Most important of all:
CREATE AN EVENT (OFFLINE OR ONLINE) THAT IS NOT ABOUT YOUR EGO/PRODUCT.

Anonymous Businessman from Aspen, Colorado.

----end manuscript---