Actionable Marketing 101
Chelsea Clinton’s fairy tale style wedding to long time boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky was the stuff little girls’ dreams are made of. Despite being the daughter of a former President and the current Secretary of State, Chelsea managed to keep a mystery around the wedding and its specifics. For many, a 400 person wedding wouldn’t be small but, for the ultimate power couple, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Chelsea’s wedding had a limited number of invitees. Together these factors all served to fuel further speculation and interest.
By contrast, in 2008, presidential daughter, Jenna Bush, chose to marry Henry Hager in her family ranch in Crawford, Texas rather than in the White House. Further, the first daughter and others close to her eagerly spilled the beans about many wedding details in advance across a variety of media entities. As a marketer, it’s hard to believe that senior members of the Republican leadership or even the president’s own press secretary didn’t try to persuade President Bush to host a White House wedding to generate positive public interest.
3 Offer-related marketing lessons from Chelsea Clinton’s wedding
From a marketing perspective, companies can learn how to improve their offer and increase interest around it from how Chelsea Clinton handled her wedding.
- Based on a well-known, archetypical story. While most women spend years fantasizing about their nuptials, few get to have the wedding of their dreams. Chelsea was married in a beautiful designer dress in an American version of a castle. How can you adapt favorite stories to your product and/or brand? For example, the Harry Potter series, which itself incorporates many story archetypes, gained publicity from its author, JK Rowling, and her rags to riches success story.
- Kept information secret. Since much of the information about the wedding was concealed from the public, aided by confidentiality agreements, the public’s interest in the affair was heightened by what they couldn’t have. Think about how you use information to add allure to your products. Until the iPhone4, Apple was the master of keeping product introductions cloaked in secrecy.
- Limited product availability. Since invitations to Chelsea’s wedding were limited, they were more valuable and further raised interest about the affair. What can you do to your offering to make it special? How can you limit quantities and/or access to make your customers feel special? Both Woot.com and Gilt.com make their offers time limited. Once the inventory is gone, that’s it.
While not every bride can be a fairy princess (or has rich parents), as a marketer, it’s important to make your customers feel special based on their interactions with you.
Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen
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Photo Credit: Photo source: Dunnottar Castle by Macieklew
Note: Chelsea Clinton was not married at this castle.