Elvis is a Marketer?

Believe it or not, yes, he is.

In fact, just this past weekend a guy dressed up like Elvis and put the golden rule of marketing into action – give your customers something of value, and they’ll gladly pay for it.

Now he could have followed the lead of everyone else and just picked a street corner to sit on with his tin cup, hoping someone would throw some spare change his way. Instead this guy chose to step out of the norm and do 3 things that guaranteed him money in his pocket at the end of the day.

Unique Offer ~ Invest ~ Give Value

Here’s what this Elvis impersonator did to earn about $1000 cash by the end of the day, while the other guy was lucky to bring in $20 bucks.

Unique Offer: Elvis decided that if he was going to make money, he had to do something different and unique in order to get people’s attention long enough for them to hand over their cash.

The reality is that 99% of people ignore those who are begging for money on the streets. Not because they don’t feel sadness for the less fortunate, but because money is hard to come by, and unless they’re getting something of value in return, they’re not going to part with it easily.

And that led to an ordinary guy dressing up as Elvis.

Invest: “It takes money to make money” still holds true today. If you’re not willing to invest in your venture, it makes it that much harder to get ahead of the all the guys with the tin cups.

So like all of us at one point, you have to do whatever it takes to come up with the money you need to invest in your business.

Side Note: Jimmy D. Brown and Nicole Dean’s Outsourcing Weekly Course has a great lesson about how you can come up with the cash you need for your business.

In this case, he invested in his venture by purchasing an Elvis costume, mask, and microphone – all in an attention grabbing, solid gold color.

Next, he packs up everything and takes it downtown to a prime location. Not on a street corner where people are busy rushing somewhere; instead, he chooses to set up in a place where tourists are getting coffee from Tim Hortons, lingering on benches with ice cream cones, and enjoying the view of the pretty little fountain and the giant sky wheel.

So he goes to the center of it all, sets up his little wooden stage, puts on his Elvis costume, arranges his accessories, and climbs up on stage, goes completely still, and looks exactly like a gold Elvis statue.

Now, the whole time this is going on people start gathering around with curiosity, wondering what the heck this guy is up to. So now that he has their attention, Elvis makes the move that will net him a nice day’s pay.

Give Value: Elvis knows that if he merely set out his tin cup on his makeshift stage, he would make a little money from the curious onlookers, but he’s looking for more than that. So he sets out a sign that says: Get your picture taken with Elvis – $2.

But he takes it one step further and gives them more value for their money – each customer gets a gold bead necklace to wear for their picture with him.

1) His customers are tourists on vacation. This is the exact kind of thing they take pictures of because it’s not something you see everyday.

2) He cashed in on their desire to take a picture by setting a price that was both affordable and profitable.

3) He increased the value of his offer by giving them a free souvenir to go along with their picture of him.

This Elvis impersonator knew his customers weren’t going to hand over their money for nothing in return. So he came up with a unique offer, invested in his venture, and gave people value for their money.

Are you a marketer like Elvis, or do you follow the crowd and confine yourself to doing what others are doing because it looks like it works?