When my friend Mark opened his bakery, he was faced with a marketing dilemma. Should he blow his marketing budget on a single print advert that would cost him several thousand dollars or should he invest that money in something else? The promise of brand validation and the creation of mass awareness made the print advert tempting. But Mark wasn’t aiming to build a business that was more visible. He wanted to connect with his community around memorable experiences.

So instead of spending his marketing budget on conventional advertising, Mark created the weekly bread basket. The basket contained a week’s supply of delicious fresh bread which one lucky customer got to take home and enjoy. But here’s the best part. Each customer who received the basket nominated the next person to get one and recorded why they chose their friend or neighbour in a notebook at the bakery. The bread basket didn’t just spread the word about Mark’s bakery.
It connected friends and neighbours and made them feel like they mattered.

The kind of marketing we invest in sends a signal the kind of company we are aspiring to build. The immediacy of gaining awareness feels like progress.
But awareness isn’t what keeps customers coming back.

Image by scattered view