The Best Product Marketing Technique Of 2021

How much did you spend on marketing last year? And how much did it bring you?

As Product Owners, the marketing of our product is typically not something that we steer directly but as “value maximizers” we do care about the marketing of our products. In fact, perhaps letting the public know that you have an awesome solution to their problems that is better than anything else should be top of your mind.

So what was the best product marketing technique that I discovered in 2021? Well, let me tell you a story:

“In November my wife got anxious. She always gets anxious around this time of year because there might be snow. Now, snow in itself is a wonderful joyful thing, but it also does funny things with the traction of your car tires. And so, I was sent to a local garage on a mission to make sure we got blizzard-proof tires on our vehicle.

This involved driving to a small garage and then walking back home through the rain, then later that day reversing that process only to be greeted with hail and wind. As I came to the garage, I noticed that my day indeed could get worse. They had done a fine job on the tires, but the mechanic had forgotten to wash his hands while handling my car, leading to dark smudges of grease all over my seat and door interior. When I complained he reluctantly pulled out a spray bottle of some sort and tried to remove the stains but ended up rubbing them deeper into the material. At some point, I gave up and just drove home.

Later that week I called a local car cleaner and asked if they could help, they were skeptical at first but asked me if I could drop by so the specialist could take a look. He frowned as he looked at the spots but then vigorously attacked the stains with a machine taken from the set of StarWars. With clouds of steam and cleaning fluid condensing on his forehead he spent, what I later discovered, was his lunch break trying to restore my car to its former glory, while I was waiting with a cup of tea.

Upon returning the car he told me to take it home and let him know after a day or two if the stains were gone. He didn’t need an address or name but said he trusted me. It felt kind of strange to drive home, almost as if I had taken something without paying for it. Two days later the car looked as new and I send them an email complimenting their work and asking for an invoice.

The reply I got was:

Glad to hear it’s all to your liking!

If you recommend us to others it’s great 😊

That’s the only thing we ask from you 👍🏼

Sincerely,

And there it hit me: this is probably the best marketing technique they could ever use. They genuinely wanted to help me and rather than invoicing a small job they surprised me to such an extent that they would always be the first name to spring to mind if someone needs a car cleaned professionally.

When was the last time you helped a customer to solve a problem and turned them into a fan? Perhaps a great discussion to have with the people that market your product, because even if we do not steer marketing directly it does impact the value you can create by an order of magnitude.

So if you need your car cleaned and live near Apeldoorn, check out https://www.carcleaningcenterapeldoorn.nl and if you know a mechanic that is passionate about soap, let me know.