Market where you will stand out from the crowd

If you are a company which provides a franchise opportunity in the concrete equipment rental business, at what type of tradeshow should you exhibit?  Construction?  Business opportunity?  Landscaping?

Those would be logical choices.  But logical isn’t always the best choice. 

Case in point:  This weekend I’m attending the BlogWorld conference, which is a conference for bloggers, podcasters, and new media experts.  In other words, the biggest collection of laptop-toting geeks I’ve seen since I used to attend MacWorld years ago.  (Yes, I’m one of them.  Blackberry in one hand, laptop in the other.  Sigh.)

So I was intrigued when I walked past a booth featuring a huge concrete mixer, and the word WHY? in large letters on their backdrop.

Bruce Christensen from Cart-Away at the BlogWorld Expo

The booth was for Cart-Away Supply which manufactures concrete equipment for the self-service “u haul it” concrete business market.  It turns out, their business is really struggling because of the housing crash. 

So Cart-Away’s Bruce Christensen came up with an idea;  Instead of marketing to the same people all of their competitors are marketing to, in the same places, with the same message…why not come to a blogging conference and ask all of the influential bloggers there to help tell their story. 

BRILLIANT!

Because they are the only construction related vendor at this tech/blogging related event, they really stand out.  They have a great story to tell about why they are doing what they are doing.  And they are very upfront about the fact they need help, and can’t do everything on their own. 

So, check out Cart Away by clicking HERE

And read more about their “blog marketing” marketing strategy by clicking HERE

Good luck Cart-Away!

Lessons learned:

• When the market zigs, you need to zag.
• Be very creative in your approach to the market, and you’ll get noticed
• If your business is struggling, ask others for help.  You just might get it