marketing consulting for wedding professionals    Writing, branding, logo design.newsletter design

What is Driving the Vintage Trend in Weddings?

March 27, 2013 By 4 Comments

At market you connect with people in all layers of the bridal business from designers to retailer to publishers. Last weekend I kept having a similar conversation over and over again.no more mason jars

When will the vintage trend in weddings be over?

In my mind, this trend should have already died and I said so, but it got me thinking more deeply about what is driving it.

  • First off, I think it is really in their hearts less about vintage than it is about ‘casual’. Vintage is just the name that got hung on it. Couples today are more concerned about having fun and seeing to the comfort of their guests than they are about being aspirational. Many see the more traditional hotel or banquet hall wedding reception as stuffy and constrained. In an effort to reduce stress they are abandoning that look for something they perceive as more casual and laid-back.
  • Second, I think the economy is driving it. Today’s couples are reaching out to alternative venues because they believe, correctly or not, that they are less expensive than a traditional wedding venue. These alternative venues are seen as unique and edgy. The venues, also effected by the economy, are reaching out to the bridal world as a new source of revenue.
  • Third, the vintage trend is seen as a Do-It-Yourselfer’s paradise. They can search flea markets and thrift shops for mismatched vases and mason jars and plop in a single daisy rather than rent beautiful silver vases and bowls from a rental company or a florist for over the top arrangements.
  • Perhaps the most important point, they are at heart copy-cats. Designing a wedding is something they have not done before. They search Pinterest and the wedding blogs not just for ideas but validation. If someone else has done it successfully they feel validated in their choices, even if it was done in a style shoot.
  • Which brings me to my last point. The blogs and style shoots, in an effort to “give the brides what they want” keep styling and showcasing vintage. It is stuck in a loop.

So how do we stop it?

As designers and stylists, you first have to understand what is driving it and then fill those needs. Today’s couples want highly personalized wedding with a casual, easy feel at a cost-effective price point. That doesn’t by default mean “Vintage”. It just means that is all they have been shown.

So put on your thinking caps, find some new inspiration, design your little hearts out and give them some alternatives. In your style shoots, don’t default to either vintage or over the top bling, find a middle ground. Understand their needs and desires and find new ways to execute them.

 

Filed Under: Blog, Inspiration, Marketing, Website Design, What's Hot Tagged With: , , , ,

Tips for Sending Business Holiday Cards

December 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Tis the season for spreading joy and love and apparently some pretty bad taste. As a business owner and professional, you may be sending out Christmas cards this year to your clients and fellow pros. It should be about thanks and spreading the joy of the season, not a time to solicit business!

  Here are 4 well thought out tips for sending business holiday cards courtesy in large part from the very professional Courtney Hammons of A Magical Affair.Christmas card in bad taste

Do not include your business cards – if I am important enough to send a Christmas card to than I should be someone you know!

It is not the time to plug what you do with photos of your work!

If I have not worked with you this past year telling me it has been a blessing working with me leads me to believe I am just a long line of cards you were signing your name to!

Take the time to sign the cards! You are not the queen of England or the president of the United States if the people you are sending the cards to are not worth the 3 seconds it takes to sign your name than you should not be sending them!

 

All of these strike me as in as bad of taste as telling your brides to send cards in their invitations advertising where they are registered!

Filed Under: Ask Christine, Back to Basics, Rants & Raves Tagged With:

“What’s Dangerous Is Not To Evolve”

April 21, 2012 By 1 Comment

This from the ‘way-back ‘ machine!

I was looking at my stats today and found an old article that was trending so I read it to see why. Well, I didn’t find the answer to that question but I did find something else interesting.

If you are a new follower then you may not know that in the beginning Think was a subscription only website. There are a few gems that never made it to the free side, this is one of them. Originally published in March 2009 in the early days of the Great Recession, I can’t believe how prophetic it was. The lessons in it are still important.

 

“What’s Dangerous Is Not To Evolve”

That is a recent quote from Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.

People are always picking my brain about the wedding industry; how to grow their business, what steps to take, how to survive right now. That kind of thing. I think what Bezos said is the key for every small business, particularly in our industry.

You look around at the changes that are taking place right now. Look at this month’s Facts and Stats column. For the first time in recent memory the overall value of the wedding market is in decline and it looks like it will not fully recover until 2012. If you sit around on your hands and try and wait it out, hoping things will go back to the way they were you are in for a rude awakening. What are you doing to evolve?

I come on here every month with thoughts and ideas on how to grow your business. Ways to fine tune and tweak. How many of them have you implemented? What is stopping you? I watch some of the people that have come to me for advice actually use it. I am watching their market value grow every day.

The ones that are winning aren’t taking one little idea and trying it once. They are taking the body of advice and using it to formulate their own transformation. They are changing what they do and how they do it on a fundamental level. They are doing it deliberately and fearlessly and they are succeeding. What are you doing?

I am a faithful participant on a forum for bridal salon owners. Day after day, year after year they are struggling to find tools to fight the same battle.  Screw that, pick a new battle.  The single hardest person to shop for in a wedding is the MOB. Cater to her. Oh I know, you sell wedding gowns, there is more profit in a wedding gown. Oh really? Not when you are fighting the discounters every day. Brides buy one dress; my mom bought 5 MOB outfits, all from the same shop. You know something else; today’s MOB’s are baby boomers, the single largest demographic on earth.  Not only that, but these women often find themselves in the position to wear similar gowns for other functions. They have to buy them somewhere. So, market to brides for a single event or build a customer base for many events for years to come. Think differently.

I have a florist friend that saw the writing on the wall. Flowers are a place that brides are cutting back. With the rise of flowers at Costco and online, brides are doing them themselves. So did she bemoan the fact and try to convince brides what a mistake that was. Nope. She started teaching classes for brides on the fundamentals of creating a simple bouquet and boutonnière. Additionally she is renting out all the beautiful containers she has amassed over the years. Yep, that’s thriving too.  She is thinking differently.

What about cakes? I know a bit about those having done them for almost 20 years.  I read a quote recently in a Boston paper and I apologize on not having saved it. A baker was saying that more and more brides are choosing cupcakes over traditional cake because of the cost. I say start putting cupcakes front and center in your business. People will buy cupcakes every day of the year, not just on their wedding. Get them to take them to work, to church, home for dessert. Sell them every day. The brides that had cupcake wedding cakes can relive that moment once a week for a buck or two. Put as much style creativity and effort into them as you do your wedding cakes and your cupcake sales will more that make up for the decline in elaborate wedding cakes. Cupcakes are a small thing and relatively inexpensive.  In this economy, people will often shower themselves with small treats because they can no longer afford the large ones. Evolve with the market.

Even I’m doing it. You know that I design and sell websites for wedding vendors through my division, The Agency. Recently we discovered another market that was facing a lot of the same issues because of the economy; probably more: realtors.  For years they were riding high and getting taken for ridiculous sums by web designers that were holding them and their hosting hostage.  We are using the same skill set to create sites for them. We are saving them money and increasing their traffic exponentially.

Again I ask: what are you doing to evolve?

Filed Under: Ask Christine, Blog, Building Your Business Tagged With: , ,

What Are You Really Selling?

April 11, 2012 By 2 Comments

I have had several thought provoking conversations after yesterday’s article concerning the often unrealistic expectations of today’s brides.

Many things have changed in our little world of weddings, much as they have changed in the greater world at large. Time was that how and what  you charged for your goods and services was largely determined by those that came before you. The problem with that is that often what the consumer was really paying for was cloaked in something else. You can’t do that anymore.

Take the women in the video. She has failed to see the talent behind the purchase she made, reducing it to fabric and labor and forgetting the knowledge and talent that went into it. There is a lot more that goes into selling a wedding gown than fabric and labor. There is the expertise and the eye of the designer. There is the expertise of the person that was able to listen to your dreams and assess your body type and pull the perfect dress off the rack to compliment both. There is the care that goes into handling, pressing and preparing your gown once it arrives in the shop,. There is the salons knowledge of a myriad of little details like which gown is easier to alter and will any Chinese holidays interfere with your expected shipping date. These are the thing you do and know that make you special. You deserve to profit from this.

Lets look outside our industry for a minute.

The advertising industry has been hit by this.What an ad agency really produces through their creativity and their knowledge of your product and your market is the ad campaign. In the days of Mad Men, what they charged for was the ad placement, the art and copy was used to pitch the client.  Companies today are using less and less of the traditional media to advertise with the end result that ad agencies still charging in the old way are losing their ass. Only the nimble have realized that they have to charge for what they really produce. They have to relearn how to charge and charge for their talent.

Wedding photographers are facing the same issue.

Once upon a time photographers charged virtually nothing for their skill behind the lens, their profits were cloaked in what they charged for the prints and the albums. They weren’t charging for their real talent. Today’s bride can order prints online for next to nothing and design her own albums at unbelievably cheap rates. What she can’t do is capture the picture the way a good photographer can. She can’t set up the shot and understand the lighting the way a professional photographer can.

Your talent isn’t the ability to order prints. It is your ability to capture them in the first place.

Times have changed and your thinking has to as well. Each and everyday there are more tools available to the consumer. This isn’t just you photographers.

Look at what it has done to the invitation segment.

Brides everywhere are hitting PaperSource and using the laser printer at work to print their own invitation. Heck, there are even consumer devices for letterpress printing. Would it hold up for the long haul? Probably not but I bet you could shoot 200 invitations through it. So sure they can print it, but can they design it? Do they have your knowledge of color and scale and typography?  Your design work should be your biggest charge! You deserve to profit from this.

Here is my point.

Are you charging for what your real talent is?

Suppose, just suppose? Follow me because this is crazy. If a bridal salon were to charge a small markup on a dress. Then they add a shipping charge and what would essentially be a ‘dealer prep’ charge. The bride would only see the price of the dress and you would be charging for your talents.

You need to take a hard look at what makes you unique among your peers and competitors. That is what you need to be selling, marketing and for which you should be charging.

Take me for example. People that can set up a WordPress website are a dime a dozen; you may have to cough up a quarter for ones that can customize one. Heck, you can build it yourself on a free template. What I charge for is my design style and the fact the I know your product and your target market better than just about anyone out there. I charge what I do because I understand your unique industry and circumstances. I get what I do because my clients trust me and know that I will be there after the sale to make sure they know how to use the shiny new tool I just built for them.

Even back in the day, before the we hit the rest button and I still baked for a living, I knew this truth. I charged a flat rate for my cakes because they were all delicious, but it was lower than many. What I charged out the ass for was my hand made sugar work and my unique design talents. If you wanted my unique talents, you had to pay me for it.

How has your market segment changed? Have you changed with it?

Are you charging for your talent or are you still trying to make money the way generations before you did?

 

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Blog, Inspiration, Marketing, wedding marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Brides Need A Reality Check

April 10, 2012 By 10 Comments

On my continuing rant of “Where do they come up with this shit” I had some very interesting conversations this week.

I was talking to a planner that is trying to, umm, fix the budget a bride prepared for her. Some of the little things the bride got WRONG:

Budget for invitations: $0.47 each. Can you even get a postcard and mail it for that?

Total budget for bouquets for herself and 8 attendants: $200. No, not one bouquet, all of them. Oh ya, she did toss in an extra $50 for the 9 bouts.

Moving on. I spoke with a florist that was dealing with a bride that found the perfect rose in the perfect color online. Problem is, the rose was on a site for hybrid tea roses, the kind you grow in your garden and they only came as bare root plants. The wedding is 2 weeks out. Um, that’s not happening!

Same florist different bride. Bride wants anemones for her wedding in November. Florist double checked with growers. Anemones start hitting the market in late December and hit their peak from January to April. Bride said,”NO, we Googled it and they come into season in October.” Maybe Google knows something the growers don’t.

Then I found this little video from Planet Money. The author obviously forgot little things like shipping and overhead for the shop selling it and maybe even a bit of profit. I’ll bet she is also the first one to scream”SWEATSHOP” at the first mention of Chinese manufacturing.


YouTube

One of your jobs as professionals is to educate your brides. That isn’t the easiest thing to do. There is a show on HGTV that I am addicted to called Property Brothers. They have figured out a way to educate their clients; it’s called shock therapy! They show them the house of their dreams and give them just enough time to fall in love with it. Then they hit them with the asking price which usually runs about double their budget.

Reality Check!

Once the shock wears off, the client is ready to tackle some less than perfect homes and some serious renovations to get what they want.

You may want to consider this with your clients. That is if you have the chops to pull it off.
A very wise friend once told me,

“It’s easy to pull off a gorgeous wedding when you have a $60,000 budget. It’s the real pros that can do it for $15,000.”

 

Please, oh please leave your examples of brides in need of a reality check. I could use the chuckle.
Besides, it would be good for us all to know we aren’t the only ones hearing this shit!!
Filed Under: Back to Basics, Blog, Horror Stories, Rants & Raves Tagged With: , , ,

Some Companies Get It, Some Don’t.

September 1, 2011 By 2 Comments

One of the keys to continuing to be successful in business through the ups and downs of culture changes and economic upheaval is to stay focused on what your customer wants. Customers evolve with time, businesses have to as well.

Two very different articles crossed my path this morning and they highlight this better than anything I could do or say to convince you.

(Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)

 

First was an article in the Boston Globe talking about David’s Bridal’s decision to close their Priscilla’s of Boston division. Started in 1945, Priscilla’s was the epitome of high end gowns for many, many years. It salons were upscale, gorgeous and exclusive. The purchase of Priscilla’s by David’s in 2007 was their attempt to tap that market at the height of the wedding bubble. Unfortunately, the bubble burst, the economy tanked and the culture changed but the business model didn’t. The market for high end gowns sold in a slow paced pampering environment all but dried up.

This quote in the article from Yolanda Cellucci, once the reigning queen of the high end bridal salon says it all

“I used to carry Bob Mackie wedding dresses that cost up to $25,000,’’ Cellucci said. “We had a baby grand piano in the foyer with a pianist. There were models, and we served champagne. People don’t have time for that anymore. Everyone is rushing.’’

Cellucci saw the writing on the wall and closed her famous Boston salon 2 years ago. This was a woman that was smart enough to have an ATM installed in her parking lot. She never missed a trick.

David’s, also a very savvy player, hooked up with Vera Wang to go the other direction. Wang’s moderately priced line for David’s, White has reportedly been a tremendous hit. Know thy customer!

On the other end of the spectrum is Chicago’s House of Brides. I have listened for years to bridal salon owners call HoB every nasty name in the book because they saw the writing on the wall and opened an online store in addition to their brick and mortar operation. Originally opened in 1929, HoB could have continued to plug along with one little store but they jumped online and stayed ahead of the curve.

Today’s press release announced the opening of their 10th store, The Quinceanera Boutique . Something else that the article highlighted was it’s Diva Bridal Boutique, a shop exclusively for Plus size brides.

The Diva Bridal Boutique is the first salon in the nation dedicated to plus size brides. The Diva Bridal Boutique showcases fashion-forward designer wedding dresses exclusively in sizes 18 – 40. All wedding dresses are available in Women’s sizes only including the samples. Plus size brides can try-on dresses in Women’s sizes instead of the industry’s standard sample sizes of 10s and 12s. Diva Bridal Boutique features dresses available for immediate purchase or special order.

Talk about listening to your customer and giving them what they want.

Now you tell me, is it better to continue to do what has worked in the past or to continue to evolve as your customers do?

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Blog, Building Your Business, Trends Tagged With: , ,

Bride Overwhelmed! Throw her a Rope.

August 8, 2011 By 1 Comment

I was working on refining  next weeks presentation for The Professional Wedding Guild of Minnesota when I ran across this article from the archives of Think. With Bridal Show season upon us, I think it is a great time to republish.

Bride Overwhelmed! Throw Her A Rope.

I have yet to do a survey that didn’t have a high percentage of brides that checked ‘overwhelmed’ when asked their opinion of a bridal show. Try for a minute to see the show thru their eyes. The newly engaged are thinking only of the wonderful personal wedding that they have either dreamed of since childhood or have seen plastered in every magazine and all over TV. They are under the illusion that beautiful weddings just fall magically into place, make a few choices, hit the web and make a phone call or two and its done. Then they go to their first bridal show.

If you have ever worked one of the major wedding shows you have seen the look: that deer in the headlights look on the brides face. You just know that the one thing running thru her head is “ELOPE NOW”. They come to the show full of hope and excitement and by the time they are half way through they are overwhelmed by the task they have in front of them. The options at their feet boggle the mind. “Do I really have to have a custom aisle runner for my wedding to be complete?”  If you think about it that is the kind of message a lot of wedding vendors send. That is the old way of marketing for weddings.

Today’s bride is very savvy to the hard sell. They are at the show to gather information not have it crammed down their throats. Today’s bride is more thoughtful and less emotion driven in her wedding purchases. You will not get her by trying to convince her that today is the last chance she will have to order the only tulle draped crystal encrusted golden scepter guaranteed to make her wedding the envy of all her friends. They just aren’t buying that anymore. They are planning and choosing in a manner that pleases their dreams, not what the magazines or you tell them they must have.

How can you reach them? With patience and calm gentle help. I know that as a general rule I tell you to be up and excited when you work a show and I still stand behind that. This is another opportunity. When you encounter one of these dazed zombies take them under your wing, be their guide so to speak. Take a “Now honey, it’s not as bad as you think; with a little help it can all be accomplished easily” attitude. Be the expert that will thoughtfully listen to their wants and concerns and find them helpful, personal solutions. Offer to set up an appointment to talk with them in more detail as they move forward in the process, personally write your email address on your card with a “You can reach me here anytime.” Let them know that you can see just how overwhelming the show is for them and you will be available for them when they need you. Empathize with their current state.

It goes back to the hospitality theme, turn off the hard sell and turn on the caring and compassion. They will love you. What’s more they will tell all their friends about the lifesaver they found at the show. Hey, you can’t buy that kind of word of mouth.

Filed Under: Back to Basics, bridal shows Tagged With: ,

Time for an Attitude Check

June 13, 2011 By 6 Comments

Rant Alert!

I wasn’t sure whether to call this “What’s With All the Drama” or “How Not to Use Social Media” or maybe “You’re Not the Star, the Bride Is.”

I have rarely in all my years in the wedding industry seen so much bad behavior, bad attitudes and just plain misplaced sense of entitlement in wedding ‘professionals’. What is going on gang?

Saturday night a videographer went on social media to complain that the planner didn’t come find him before the DJ announced the bridal party. Um, lose your time line, Bud? Seems to me it was your responsibility to be on top of the goings on at the event.

Also a videographer, did a blog post telling DJ’s that aside from getting the couple’s name right, their biggest job was to communicate with the videographer. Sorry, I thought the DJ’s job was to keep the party going and the couple happy. Am I missing something here?

How about the photographer complaining about the videographers off to the side of the pavilion because they would be in his shots. Um, didn’t the couple hire them to capture the wedding ceremony? Do they not have some right to do their job too?

Then there was the photographer that wasn’t going to shoot the toast because, “I only focus on the bride and groom.” I guess that was also the reason that he walked up the aisle to get his gear during the recessional instead of shooting any images of the bridal party.

Then there was the bridal shop in a discussion about brides buying gowns online from China that thought that we need

A vigorous effort to force government to put
the clamps on the flood of incoming direct shipments

Um, doesn’t China hold a large part of the United States debt. Wow, what a great idea, lets piss off our biggest creditor over an infinitesimally small part of out economy. I know that it is a large part of this salon owners economy, but the government isn’t going to hang itself over it.

What has happened to the professionalism in this industry. I do realize that 3 years of a struggling economy is starting to take its toll on everyone, but this is not the way to handle it. We need a little bit of an attitude check here. You are not the star, the bride is.

Get this through your heads people, I don’t care what you do or how good you are, you are the hired help. We work live events, not staged shoots. The other vendors are not there to make your product or service look better or serve you. They are there to serve the bride, if that doesn’t fit your plan then you are in the wrong business.

 

Just a heads up.

This isn’t just back room fighting anymore, brides and people outside the industry are starting to notice. I read this quote on Salon.com last week

“A modern wedding is an elaborate photo shoot during which two people who love each other very much attempt to escape the photographers long enough to get married.”

 

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Blog, Rants & Raves Tagged With: ,

Why the iPad Matters to Your Bridal Marketing

November 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Simply put because it is the future.

Check this blip about the new Glamour magazine app

Each digital issue includes the entire contents of the magazine, PLUS exclusive extras like video, photos and app-only fashion picks you can tap to purchase straight from your iPad, iPod touch or iPhone! You can also save your favorite fashion and beauty items–complete with details on where to buy them–for easy shopping reference when you’re on the go.

This may be just the thing that causes the revival of bridal magazines. Oh stop, I know that Glamour isn’t a bridal rag but they are owned by Conde Nast, so is Brides. Which means that Brides has access to the tech, if they are smart enough to use it.

Why carry a bridal magazine that weights a bunch around when you can just read it on your iPad or iPhone? Double score that you can just click to buy or link to a vendors website. Sounding better? What’s better, since it is in the app store it is now an impulse buy. Bored on the train to work? Buy the latest Bridal porn. Done.

The iPhone is great but the screen isn’t really big enough to really give the reader the same feel of a high end print glossy. But the iPad does.

Next you are going to tell me that, yes the app lets you view the entire magazine but you have to pay for it and no one will pay for content. Au contraire my friend!

Check out this article from the New York Times

The News Corporation said on Tuesday that it had gained 105,000 paying customers for the digital versions of The Times and The Sunday Times of London since it started charging for access to their Web sites this summer.

The company said about half of those additions were regular, active subscribers to the newspapers’ Web sites, iPad application or Amazon Kindle edition. The rest were occasional purchasers. Another 100,000 readers have activated free digital accounts that are included in print subscriptions to the papers, the News Corporation said.

“These figures very clearly show that large numbers of people are willing to pay for quality journalism in digital formats,” said Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, the London-based arm of the News Corporation that publishes The Times papers.

The advent of the iPad has given a glimmer of hope to the currently on life support print media.

So there are two things I want you to think about:

First if you are considering putting any money into print, make dang sure that their presence on the iPad is what it should be. Don’t let them get away with telling you that they have a website. Tell them you want something like Glamour has put together.

Second, make sure you back up your purchase with a website that will show up on the iPad when a bride to be clicks on your ad. That means one thing—NO FLASH–. Yes I know it’s pretty, but it is totally useless with the format that today’s brides use to access the web most. You may just want to read this to be sure your site is where it needs to be.

The iPhone and more importantly, the iPad are not fads. This is particularly true with the higher end brides.

Check out what Mary Schmidt has to say about the future and the iPad.

Filed Under: Marketing, Trends, Website marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

The Power of Poo: Outrageous Marketing

November 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Yep, I just had to use that headline. It got your attention didn’t it?

I read an article last week about a company in Texas called CowWow that makes an all natural fertilizer made of liquified dairy cow waste. More specifically it was about a marketing campaign that they used. It was risky, it was expensive and it scared them enough to think twice before going forward. It was also a HUGE hit. Please read the original article.

So what does cow manure have to do with marketing your wedding business? Well, nothing really, but the risky campaign they ran has some great lessons.

Much of marketing is about name recognition and buzz. Sometimes you just have to do something totally outrageous to get that.

For example, Preston Bailey and the flower sculpture he did for the Knot’s party in New York this fall. You can’t tell me that the thing wasn’t outrageous or that it wasn’t marketing. The minute I got the Knot branded bulk email pimping Preston’s blog I knew that it had been done on some sort of trade. So bottom line, Preston did it for the marketing potential. The sculpture was seen by anyone and everyone in the wedding industry at one of the industry’s biggest weeks of the year. Then pictures of it flew around the net at break neck speed. Gee, you don’t think that had any effect on brand Preston, do you?

Two other master brand marketer that tend to pull outrageous stunts are Oprah and Richard Branson of Virgin. You don’t think O gave away a car to everyone in her audience because it made her feel all warm and fuzzy do you? Yes I know, they have tons of money and they can afford it. Guess what, they have been doing this kind of thing since the beginning. Branson, espescially so.

So how does that translate to you, the micro-biz owner?

How about we start out by rethinking your marketing plan for next year. Do a deep analysis and dump a couple of the the things that aren’t really doing a lot for you. Use that savings to build a slush fund named Outrageous. Then start to keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities.

Your opportunity may be something as obvious as the bridal show you do every year. Instead of just doing your booth do something outrageous. Bring coffee and breakfast for all the vendors if you are a caterer. If you are a florist build a damn 15 foot tall tree in the entrance that is dripping with flowers. If you do gowns hire a bunch of model to walk the show floor in gowns. If you are a band or a DJ, buy a quad and rent a dance floor and hire a few people to act as plants and get a party going.

I never said that outrageous equaled cheap.

If you are a venue, host a “Kick-Off” party or an “End of Season” party for the vendors in your area. Make it a killer event, make it free and fantastic.

Once you have found your opportunity, make an entire campaign out of it. Use all of your social media to support and reinforce it. The florist with the 15 foot tree should be posting pictures of the frame in progress on his blog, twitter and Facebook. Just sneak peeks. Then right before the show make sure to flood the network with “don’t miss this” messages. After the fact, post your pictures and full story on your blog. Any advertising going forward should have a picture of this now famous piece on it.

You can’t just pull an outrageous stunt and just let it lie there. You have to tap it gently on the behind and push it out into the world.

The secrets here are to establish the slush fund, be open to oportunities, do something BIG and be fearless.Then promote, promote, promote. Your tribe will take it from there.

One thing that you may have noticed is that not all of the ideas I mentioned are pointed at brides. Word of mouth is still the strongest tool in pulling in wedding business. You should work dilligently to make sure that the other wedding professionals in your sphere of influence are recommending you.

Go back and read the article that started all this. They were scared through the whole process, but thier gut kept telling them YES.

Filed Under: Branding, Marketing, Outrageous Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,
« Older Posts