Homeless man with Golden Voice - Basic marketing principles in action.

This posting bears little relationship to the usual subject of this blog. The reason it's here is the unrelenting need for marketing by any individual or organisation, using any means possible to attract potential customers.

This story has proven to be the latest viral video which has spread across the world wide web in just a few short hours and demonstrates some basic principles of marketing in action.

Ted Williams, a homeless man with a golden voice demonstrated his services to a passing market. The service on offer was his dulcet baritone voice with proven experience on live radio. His audience were passing motorists, compelled to stop in Ted’s shop window by the traffic lights at the motorway slip road. Not necessarily the obvious market demographic, but when your desperate, you will pitch to any market available. In Ted’s case, his marketing pitch worked, albeit with some luck along the way.

By chance, one of those passing motorists was someone from the media; Doral Chenoweth, an Ohio web producer who was so taken by the sight and sound of this homeless man collecting small change in return for the sound of his voice, that he made a round trip to the same junction, this time with his camcorder at the ready. Even so, a couple of weeks passed before posting the short clip on Youtube. The rest is history. The video went viral with millions learning Ted’s story and many others duplicating the story to try a steal a bit of the action (including this author).

To that end, here are a few summary conclusions on how others might replicate this marketing initiative.

The four ‘P’s of marketing:

• Product: Make sure you have a product that’s wanted by others.
• Place: Put your product (or service) in a place where it can be seen or heard.
• Promotion: When an audience appears, put it out there.
• Price: Make the sure the price covers the cost of production (with some profit) and the customer is willing to pay the price.

And don’t forget a bit of luck along the way. Remember the words of Golfer Gary Player “The harder I practice, the luckier I get”.

Good Luck…

www.totallockout.com

Link: The Daily Telegraph coverage of the story.

keywords: golden voice, ted williams, homeless, marketing principles, 4 ‘p’s, youtube, viral video,