bubble wall

What it might be

Much ado these days about social marketing, viral marketing, buzz marketing, personalized marketing . . . 

But I don't think there's a term yet for the kind of modest approach that flows naturally from the identity of the product or service.  Marketing that's smart, scalable, nimble, inventive, integrated, and transparent.

Yet that seems to be the kind of approach that actually works for today's new and renewing small businesses, entrepreneurs, non-profits, emerging artists, and other uncorporations.

bubble wall is a blog about new ideas for a new kind of marketing.

Rule (to break) #1

The first and most important rule to break--if you want to be a successful bubble marketeer--is "Follow the rules."

(a) If the rules were foolproof, everyone who followed them would succeed.   (b) If you follow the same rules as everyone else, how will you stand out?  (c)  If you're too focused on the rules, you can't hear your own intuition.

A better approach: Know the rules.  Study them, learn them, understand them.  Then let them go.

That way, you can use a rule when it happens to apply, but break it when there's a better approach!

Instant example:  I did a search on "business marketing rules small business."  One of the first articles I looked at started with this fairly familiar rule:  Buzz marketing trumps traditional advertising every time. 

Is that true for your business?  Maybe, but maybe not.  A better "rule" would be:  Buzz marketing trumps ordinary advertising.  But it may not trump extraordinary advertising.

For a useful example of unruly thinking, see Fast Company's thought-provoker, Is the Tipping Point Toast?

This is your brain on marketing . . .

Yes, when you put test subjects in an MRI machine and show them pictures of products, a certain part of the brain lights up in response to the "cool" stuff.  Which turns out to explain something about the whys of buying.

And that's just one finding from the bubbly science of neuromarketing.

Find out more in this must-read article.

Example of bubble marketing--#1

This story--recently heard on NPR--epitomizes at least one quality of  bubble marketing.  I'm not sure how to label this flavor of specialness . . . so . . .  listen, and draw your own conclusions. 

But from my vantage, the bubble-factor is a lot about the gift bag (and the frozen peas).   

Kathy Sierra talks about "Creating Passionate Users"