Your first marketing strategy: learning from Ben’s Ice Cream

The best marketing in invisible

You have to try Ben’s Homemade Peach ice cream? It is amazing!

I always stop in for a scoop on my way to or from (or both) Pinehurst.  I was there on Monday taking advantage of my birthday round at Pine Needles/Mid Pines.  Their key marketing strategy is in making the product awesome. Seth may call it remarkable.  I believe this should be the first marketing strategy.  If your product isn’t worth talking about, all of the other tactics of exposure and community building are futile.  In a recent post, Mitch Joel talks about marketing at its best is invisible.  Ben’s Ice Cream has accomplished this.

Here is what we can learn from Ben’s about invisible marketing:

  • Keep the main thing the main thing. They make their ice cream from scratch using fruit grown on their local farm. They grow over 25 types of peaches that go into their ice cream. Their waffle cones are homemade too!  Ben’s focus is on what they can control, their ice cream. No hype. No gimmicks, only great frozen dessert that people talk about. I scream- you scream- we all scream- for ice cream.
  • Community Outreach. Ben’s gives scholarships to local high school girls called “peach girls” that work at the shop. Sow into the community and they will sow into you.  People love to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

Many people are looking for the next big thing or social media silver bullet to catapult their brand into Apple, Amazon, or 37 Signals Land. In reality, not even bringing in experts like Chris Brogan, Amber Nauslund, Brian Solis, or Don Draper will help move your company’s needle if your product isn’t any good. Start with what matters most.

What strategies have you found to create invisible marketing?

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