on the show floor as everyone walks around drinking their “Shoo-hoo”. You’ve got thousands of walking billboards for your product. Great results for very little money.

This is the essence of creativity.

Perhaps you're thinking….

”Well, that worked for those guys…but…

…I’m not in the beverage industry.

…I don’t market at trade shows.

Imagine for a moment that you manage the marketing activities for a relatively well-known, non-alcoholic drink. You’re competing for buyers’ attention at an upcoming industry trade show. How can you take on Coca-Cola®, Pepsi®, Maxwell House Coffee®, Lipton Iced Tea®, 7 Up®, Gatorade® and all the other mammoth brands? They have huge booth spaces, monstrous marketing budgets and worldwide distribution.

Is there any hope for you?

Not if you try to compete on their turf. You simply don’t have the resources available to you to make a difference. Your only hope is to battle them on the fields where you have a distinct advantage. Here is where you can use your most effective combat weapons – creativity and imagination.

Because the big brands have so many resources at their disposal, they rarely rely on “thinking skills” (most small business owners don’t either because they’re too lazy). And that is precisely how you attack them and win.

Suppose your brand on the trade show floor is Yoo-hoo®, the delicious chocolate drink. You don’t have name recognition like the big brands and you certainly don’t have their advertising budgets. To grab the attention of the attendees at the show, you decide to out-think the other guys.

As visitors approach your booth, you pop open a bottle, pour it into a specially designed boot-shaped cup, put a straw in it and serve a “Shoo-hoo”. You immediately put smiles on their faces and create a constant buzz on the show floor as everyone walks around drinking their “Shoo-hoo”. You’ve got thousands of walking billboards for your product. Great results for very little money.

This is the essence of creativity.

Perhaps you're thinking….

”Well, that worked for those guys…but…

…I’m not in the beverage industry.

…I don’t market at trade shows.

<udgets and worldwide distribution.

Is there any hope for you?

Not if you try to compete on their turf. You simply don’t have the resources available to you to make a difference. Your only hope is to battle them on the fields where you have a distinct advantage. Here is where you can use your most effective combat weapons – creativity and imagination.

Because the big brands have so many resources at their disposal, they rarely rely on “thinking skills” (most small business owners don’t either because they’re too lazy). And that is precisely how you attack them and win.

Suppose your brand on the trade show floor is Yoo-hoo®, the delicious chocolate drink. You don’t have name recognition like the big brands and you certainly don’t have their advertising budgets. To grab the attention of the attendees at the show, you decide to out-think the other guys.

As visitors approach your booth, you pop open a bottle, pour it into a specially designed boot-shaped cup, put a straw in it and serve a “Shoo-hoo”. You immediately put smiles on their faces and create a constant buzz on the show floor as everyone walks around drinking their “Shoo-hoo”. You’ve got thousands of walking billboards for your product. Great results for very little money.

This is the essence of creativity.

Perhaps you're thinking….

”Well, that worked for those guys…but…

…I’m not in the beverage industry.

…I don’t market at trade shows.

p>Because the big brands have so many resources at their disposal, they rarely rely on “thinking skills” (most small business owners don’t either because they’re too lazy). And that is precisely how you attack them and win.

Suppose your brand on the trade show floor is Yoo-hoo®, the delicious chocolate drink. You don’t have name recognition like the big brands and you certainly don’t have their advertising budgets. To grab the attention of the attendees at the show, you decide to out-think the other guys.

As visitors approach your booth, you pop open a bottle, pour it into a specially designed boot-shaped cup, put a straw in it and serve a “Shoo-hoo”. You immediately put smiles on their faces and create a constant buzz on the show floor as everyone walks around drinking their “Shoo-hoo”. You’ve got thousands of walking billboards for your product. Great results for very little money.

This is the essence of creativity.

Perhaps you're thinking….

”Well, that worked for those guys…but…

…I’m not in the beverage industry.

…I don’t market at trade shows.

nd you certainly don’t have their advertising budgets. To grab the attention of the attendees at the show, you decide to out-think the other guys.

As visitors approach your booth, you pop open a bottle, pour it into a specially designed boot-shaped cup, put a straw in it and serve a “Shoo-hoo”. You immediately put smiles on their faces and create a constant buzz on the show floor as everyone walks around drinking their “Shoo-hoo”. You’ve got thousands of walking billboards for your product. Great results for very little money.

This is the essence of creativity.

Perhaps you're thinking….

”Well, that worked for those guys…but…

…I’m not in the beverage industry.

…I don’t market at trade shows.

on the show floor as everyone walks around drinking their “Shoo-hoo”. You’ve got thousands of walking billboards for your product. Great results for very little money.

This is the essence of creativity.

Perhaps you're thinking….

”Well, that worked for those guys…but…

…I’m not in the beverage industry.

…I don’t market at trade shows.

…My product is a high-dollar item.

…I sell a service not a product.

…That just wouldn’t work for me.”

You’re missing the key point here. Don’t focus on the specific marketing technique and application. Think in terms of how you can morph the idea – tweak it, modify part of it, add to it, reverse it, substitute something, combine a related idea, create something similar, use it in a different way, whatever.

In other words, what is your version of the “Shoo-hoo”?

Hopefully you can find a Shoo-hoo idea in the marketplace and adapt it as-is and run with it in one of your promotional campaigns. But ideally you shouldn’t focus on a singular idea, rather, arm yourself with a method of thinking that will allow you to solve marketing issues from a “conceptual” perspective.

You’ll achieve better and more profitable results when you pay attention to all the creative ideas that surround you, and develop your ability to strategically think about solutions. Is there more to learn by discovering how someone else faced and solved an individual challenge? What can you adapt and gain from their experience? Are there other and better ways to approach your individual situation?

There’s nothing wrong with morphing someone’s specific idea, but so much more to gain from the entire process.

So keep your creative antennae on full alert....always looking for the next great idea. And use it to grab your prospects’ attention.