Marketing Tactic 101 – Ridiculous and New

The Consumerist shared an article about a new 32% beer recently. Here’s a piece,

It could be the biggest thing from the UK to hit American shores since the British Invasion — or at the very least it could do more harm to a teenager than a Beatles song. A Scottish brewery is slowly unleashing a beer on the former colonies that contains an astounding 32% alcohol by volume.

The beer, called Tactical Nuclear Penguin and made by Scottish microbrewery BrewDog, has shipped a small amount of their potent potable to a handful of stores in California and New York. Additionally, stateside folks are also buying bottles of the beefed-up beer through the BrewDog site.

While its not the strongest beer in the world its one of the strongest ever (legally) sold in the United States. And thats where the marketing begins. The fact that this beer is so ridiculous kind of makes it obvious that consumers are going to flock to liquor stores to get this beer in their shelves. Why is it obvious? Wouldn’t you assume that a $53 price tag would hinder the sales? Nope. Let me tell you why.

Its the same reason why there was a race to see who could try the Double Down Sandwich first. And the same reason why Wendys Baconator had such success upon its launch. People, love new and ridiculous things. While all of the things mentioned here are probably horrible for your health; you can bet your bottom dollar that consumers will flock for them.

Ridiculous & New is a deadly combination for a brand to start some buzz. But often times that’s all it is. Last year KFC launched the chicken bowl and for the first 2months it was being talked about by everyone but somewhere down the road it lost its touch. It lost its spark and ultimately the buzz began to die off as new ridiculous products (chicken fries maybe?) came on the market.

The reason these products have such short shelf life is directly related to their actual value. Consumers initially try them out just to say they tried it. Not because they think they will enjoy a sodium filled 540 calorie chicken breast sandwich. They want the ability to tell their friends what they tried. To blog about it…or better yet, tweet about it.

Its  for attention.

Will your next launch demand attention? Or simply beg for it.

photo credit: djjewelz