The Maverick Marketer Blog

It’s been a wild ride since I’ve been back in Austin, but I promised I’d post more pictures and stories from my summer RV trip with Aimee and our three boys.

So, I tonight was awakened just now when Hayden cried out in his sleep, and I can’t seem to get back to my ZZ’s, so I’ve got some extra time today

Besides, I’m not just going to show you pictures… I have a marketing lesson to share, too, that I learned one hot afternoon baking in the sun in Amish country is past July.

Here’s what happened…

On the way back to Texas we didn’t stop too many places for sight seeing. We’d been away in the RV for like 8 weeks and we were a bit home sick. This was our first time in the RV and we decided to go on a 5000 mile uber-trip… so full time RV’ers can laugh now because that probably wasn’t the wisest idea for our maiden voyage (especially because I never drove the rig before we left… talk about learning on the job )

None the less… we survived with flying colors… so it’s all good.

Anyway… back to my story

I’ve got a great friend and business partner who lives in central PA… about an hour from Amish country.

After a long haul through the mountains from New York, we got into Lancaster after 11:30pm… and I’ve rarely been more scared.

Once we got off the Interstate, we headed down some two lane roads that I’m sure are perfect for horse and buggy, but a 40 foot trailer and a pickup (combined weighing 22,000 pounds, reaching nearly 12.5 feet in height) was not my idea of the best choice of vehicle for these roads. It was like we were on some real life roller coaster ride… and I was white knuckled the whole time.

The speedlimits were between 35 and 50mph, which at that hour going around bumpy, twisty roads with about a hundred feet of headlight to guide you, seemed like something only a nut job would attempt.

So, I drove at or 5mph under the speed limit… while a long, long line of traffic followed behind me… with an 18 wheeler right on my tail.

At one point, we came to a place where we had to go under a bridge over the road with 13.5 feet of clearance… and I didn’t have any way to stop… so I just prayed we didn’t lose our roof or air conditioners… my only comfort was that the huge 18 wheeler was still tail gaiting and I figured he’d have more to worry about than I did… but all was fine.

Anyway… word to the wise… don’t drive a 40′ RV down unfamiliar back roads at midnight… especially in Amish country.

Next… in what had to be a Twilight Zone experience, we came up on the scene of what may have been an accident with flares in the road. As we slowed to a crawl and drove by, I saw my first Amish woman and a man inspecting the road…. though I couldn’t see what exactly had happened. It was surreal to say the least, and I was glad I hadn’t been blasting through there at 50mph.

The next day was HOT. It felt like Texas hot… only in PA.

But, we met up with my friend and headed out to take a tour of an Amish town near Lancaster called Intercourse.

(I knew you might not believe that a town in Amish country would be called Intercourse, so I took a picture.)

I may never know why someone would name a town Intercourse, or Virginville, or Blue Ball, or any of the other names I recall seeing… but I doubt a lot of Amish people read this blog… not having electricity and all… so I may never get an answer, lol.

None the less, it was just beautiful there… the farms and houses and stores… all were like a view into another time… mixed with evidence of modern life, such as the cars, electric wires, etc. Everything looked like it could be in a postcard. And the people were friendly as can be.

We promised the kids a buggy ride tour of an Amish farm, so we headed out and found a place next to this Plain and Fancy Farm (where we ate a delicious lunch and bought gifts).

I suspect there are differnt kinds of Amish people… Those that are more conservative and keep to themselves, and those who market to the public’s fascination with their lifestyle who set up tourist attractions like this. The girl on the sign, for example, looks an awful lot like Marsha Brady from the Brady Bunch and her hair and makeup seem to suggest she was more a ‘model’ than a real Amish girl… to my untrained eye, but no worries. I got a kick out of it and snapped a pic.

Either way, I appreciate the Amish for their dedication to what they believe in the face of so much change in the world around them… I know on that day alone I would have given up my Amish suit and installed air conditioning in my house. Personally, I’m all for going with sensible modernization and benefiting from technology as long as they actually improve the true quality of life, for what it’s worth.

And my hat’s off to them for being such clever business folks, too.

When we got to ‘Aaron and Jessica’s Buggy Rides’ we found a wonderful Amish guy in a blue shirt running a very tight ship. The rides were well organized and went off like clockwork. Folks were guided to sit out of the way of the horses and we to approach only when their party was called. He had a great way with the kids and had a charming sense of humor… he looked a LOT like Santa Claus. Maybe he goes to PA in the summer?

 

For some reason I didn’t get a pic of me, my friend and Aimee and the boys on the buggy… but here’s a shot of the buggy we rode in with the previous group. These are old fashioned buggies… no windows, no AC, and they’re black… so it was a lot like riding around in an oven at times… but we didn’t mind. The guide was keeping us entertained and informed.

 

Now, after about 20 minutes of riding around small roads seeing Amish farms, complete with animals and everything… we stopped at an Amish lemonade stand. For a dollar you got a fresh glass and for another buck you got some cookies. My three year old, Hayden and Ethan were sitting up front with me and I gladly handed the endearing Amish girl cash for servings for all of us.

Then, we went around to another farm in the buggy where the tour paused again… here we were offered Amish souveniers and hand made stuff. There were no takers for this one, but the nice older lady there gave the driver/guide a heaping bowl of ice cream and a drink… which I think he inhaled faster than was likely to be healthy. Man, it was HOT.

Marketing lesson…

if you are going to drive tourists around in a mobile oven buggy, it’s not a bad idea to stop to offer them fresh, cool lemonade.

It’s a marketing metaphor to offer a glass to a thirsty crowd (see Mark Joyner’s book, The Great Offer and The Irresistable Offer)… but these guys took it a step further. They created the thirst with the buggy ride and physically brought us to where we could quence our thirst.

Very effective. Proactive, even.

I pondered that as we drove home in our air conditioned car… until we came across an Amish tourist store… complete with a statue of the biggest Amish guy I’ve ever seen.

We had bought Hayden and the rest of the family Amish hats (and a bonnet for Aimee!) for fun… so I sat Hayden on the buggy parked next to the statue to snap a pic.

 

I couldn’t help myself… I asked if Aimee would pose with Hayden, too. Now, I’ve been told I didn’t include pictures of Aimee in my last post about our RV trip… and so I thought I’d include one here with her in a bonnet. I’m fairly sure she’ll kill me when she sees I posted this while she’s sleeping… but I think it’s adorable so it’s worth it

 

 

Now, to be fair, since you can’t see her face in that last shot, I put this one I snapped in the gift shop, too. Hey, not every husband puts pics of his own wife on the Internet… but that’s a great shot and I had to share it.

So… I’m writing this and showing you these pics for a reason, of course.

I want to leave you with this question: is there a way you can apply some of the marketing savvy these Amish folks had to your business?

Is there a way for you to create a situation where your customers get ‘thirsty’ for what you have to offer?

Or, in this case… does one of your products naturally make your customers thirsty for something you can offer them?

Remember, these guys didn’t just ‘find a thirsty crowd’, the had a captive audience and set up ‘offers’ throughout the process that ‘hit the spot’

Now… of course, I’m not suggesting you actively cause people to really suffer in order to sell something. We were willing tourists and mother nature was making it hot… but…

If you’ve got a product that has true value and satisfies an urgent thirst, like ‘delicious fresh lemonaide on a hot summer day’, then people will flock to you if you position your offer to be there when they’re most thirsty.

Give it some thought… your business can’t help but make money when you’re selling people what they desperately want.

Just a thought. It’s 3:40am now and I’m finally tired and going to bed.

Let me know what you think…

- Craig

P.S. Here’s food for thought… how does this PDF of Brad and Andy’s over 40 case studies make a great example of ‘making your crowd thirsty’? Think about it… every Internet Marketer needs traffic and they’re showing sites which generated gobs and gobs of traffic and revenue by people who started with next to nothing and then followed Brad and Andy’s methods. Read it… then tell me how you feel… perhaps a bit ‘thirsty’?

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 11:30 am and is filed under Maverick Marketer Insights, Internet Marketing, relationship marketing, online marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.