What’s your vuvuzela? Do you even have one? My point in asking the question is this, “what is the one defining voice of your company and is it clearly heard in your marketing mix?
The vuvuzela has suddenly entered the vocabulary of possibly every country on the planet. The World Cup is big and the vuvuzela is front and center. Probably a lot more than people want… but here it is. A noise maker, that sounds like an elephant and is made by putting your lips against the mouthpiece so you can make a “farting sound” – or so it says at
www.southafrica.info
Kind of odd if you ask me, but hey, advertising and marketing is an odd business… you never know exactly what will get hot and what will die by the way side; especially when it comes to marketing to consumers.
Marketing to business is a little more contained. There are protocols to adhere to, titles to recognize and remember, this is serious business. At least that’s what a few experts will tell you…
Back to the vuvuzela… can South Africa turn this into a long-term win in promoting their country? My opinion – YES.
The sound of the vuvuzela can be forever entrenched in the minds of consumers and executives around the world; and used for the promotion of South Africa. Consider the following uses for the simple vuvuzela:
• Sell a vuvuzela ring tone… people will hate or love it – but they will think of South Africa when they hear it.
• Wake-up calls by the sound of the vuvuzela for breakfast on a South African safari.
• Direct mail to World Cup soccer fans next year in the form of a greeting card; you know the ones I’m talking about, open the card and it plays a pre-recorded sound of the vuvuzela with a message… “Thinking of you – are you thinking of us? Come back and hear the sounds of South Africa.”
• Including the vuvuzela in trades and presentations wherever and whenever the South African Department of Tourism makes presentations or exhibits at trade shows around the globe.
These may not be the right ideas, but every once in a while the marketplace gives you a gift. A gift of notoriety and familiarity; a gift that creates strong emotional association that recalls memories, feelings and experience; something you did not expect to receive.
For South Africa, the vuvuzela is that gift. Yes, it is strongly related to football and the Worldcup, but…it can be and should be attached to the identity of South Africa.
Now, what about your company? What gift has the market given you? If the market hasn’t given you something like a vuvuzela, can you create one? Yes, you can…in the immortal words of Nike, “Just Do It.”
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