I’ve just returned from my trip to Las Vegas, and I was struck by the level of beauty and detail in each of the many hotels and shows! I’d say Vegas has one of the most successful marketing strategies in the world, and I’m going to give you a look at my trip over the next few posts.

I’m starting out with my surprise at the beauty and detail shown in the hotels. I’ve been to Trevi Fountain and the Arc de Triumph, and the Vegas replicas rival the real thing to a T. Further, the painting on the ceilings, marble-like statues, and gilt columns really give the tourist a sense of the old cathedrals and museums on the other side of the world. It’s amazing what we can do with technology today. You can literally walk down a street and see Italy, France, and New York in an hour!

As a marketer, giving people the “real thing” is a cornerstone for many campaigns… it’s one of Coke’s taglines! People return to Vegas again and again to try to find the new details that they missed on countless other trips. Many car companies, clothing retailers, and restaurants sell entire concepts and product lines based solely on their ability to provide beauty and detail to their customers.

In addition to the beauty in the hotels, many of the tradeshow booths featured gorgeous art and sleek marketing collateral. Aviation is often perceived as boring, technical, and ugly, which many companies proved wrong at the show. You can find artistic shots of engines, wings, and aircraft parts, all woven perfectly with the company tagline and benefits. I’ve been inspired to work on a new booth for one of our companies, insisting that there’s no reason to do things the ugly way when a beautiful way exists! Artistic shots of the details of an engine draw attendees in, and can make the difference between an empty booth and a busy booth.

Once again, I saw how beauty and detail bring people in by the thousands, literally! Part of the Vegas appeal is the ability to experience so many forms of beauty and detail in one small space. The desire for beauty extends beyond our entertainment, and straight into the corporate world, as the booths and marketing pieces demonstrate. Have you ever longed for a car just because it’s a work of art? Purchased a pair of shoes because they looked beautiful in the window? Marveled at the presentation of your food at an expensive steakhouse?

My husband and I enjoyed a backpacking trip over Labor Day weekend on the Lone Star Hiking Trail. Even in the middle of the woods, I couldn’t help thinking about marketing and the corporate world! So, I’ve got a quick 3-part series of posts with some of my thoughts from the backpacking trip.

When trekking through the woods for a few days, you either pack all your water, or find water sources along the trail. The water sources along the trail need to be purified, so we used chlorine drops to make the trail water safe. It struck me that most bottled water companies advertise their bottled water as some variation of the message “pure, straight from the source.” There’s usually a picture of a rushing stream, or a lake surrounded by mountains. They sell this water at a premium, and people swear that “pure stream water” tastes much better than “fresh mountain water”. But here I am, LITERALLY getting water directly from the source, and I can’t sell it at a premium… in fact, it’s basically free (I suppose we can count the pennies worth of drops used to purify the water in the cost, but that’s trivial). I think most people would agree that my drops-induced creek water tastes a little funny, and isn’t worth paying top dollar.

On the flip side, if you’re without water in a desert, you’ll pay top dollar for ANY water, not just the fresh, purified stream water. At the point of dehydration, you might not even care if the water is purified at all, figuring a stomach ache is worth the risk to avoid the possibly fatal effects of going for days without water. We weren’t in dire need of water, but we were glad to find this little creek on our route. This creek water was much more satisfying than the lake water (confession: I couldn’t drink the lake water… it was just too gross-looking!).

Thus, my water in the woods is ironically not a “premium” product, even though it lives up to the “straight from the source” marketing, but it would become a premium product if it were more scarce. This was a fun realization in nature, and I look forward to sharing my other insights from the weekend!

I don’t know much about guns, but I know this: shotguns use bullets that explode everywhere, and rifles use bullets that go precisely into a single target. Marketers use these tactics as well. The shotgun marketer throws a ton of strategies, commercials, and messages to every customer in every market. The rifle marketer takes careful aim, and takes one single, pivotal shot at one single, pivotal customer. Neither tactic is better or worse in general, but they should be used in different situations.

The shotgun approach works well when you have a product that most people use. “Most people” could be included in a certain industry or demographic. For example, most people across all age groups and industries use some type of computer, with some type of browser and software. I’ve really enjoyed the last few campaigns by Microsoft to sell their different products and services to the market. Their “I’m a PC” campaign and “Make It Great” campaign showcase customers of all ages, from all walks of life, from business owners, to students, and everything in between. Their “Bing and Decide” campaign touches on all the different subjects and information people are searching for, and offers a variety of ways that their search engine, Bing, can help them make better decisions. Since most of the population can use at least one of Microsoft’s products, the shotgun approach makes sense. Their campaigns don’t focus on single features or single user characteristics, but rather the overall picture of a great product to meet everyone’s needs.

The rifle approach works well when you are in a very niche market. I’m currently working in the aviation industry, and the rifle approach is our best bet. We do have some subtle differences between customers, but our niche is pretty defined, with a certain type, size, value, and use of an aircraft. It makes no sense for us to put out a radio ad promoting our services, as a majority of radio listeners don’t need our services. Instead, we focus on industry trade shows that cater to our market, and industry magazines that cater to our demographic. Sure, some of these publications only have 10,000 readers, vs. mainstream publications with hundreds of thousands, or even millions of subscribers. But if the 10,000 readers are actually viable customers, we get more bang for the buck by targeting them with a specific message. We go to our customers, instead of making the customer come to us, or adding to the clutter and noise of the advertisements they see every day.

These are simplified examples, but the sentiment is the same: do you use the shotgun or the rifle? Once you pick the type of strategy, you can make your message much more effective.