You Gotta Seed to Believe

“A breakthrough idea needs both innovators and opinion leaders to create mass, and varying numbers of each. Within early markets, the fringe facilitates innovation and the opinion leaders encourage mass adoption. Critical mass is achieved once the rate of adoption is self-sustaining. Making contact with these groups is the most delicate and critical stage of the hijack operation.” [SOURCE | BRAND HIJACK book (pg. 190)]

In FIRST IN THIRST, Rovell writes how Gatorade built its business by seeding the marketing with innovators and opinion leaders – a page right out of the Brand Hijack playbook (see quote above).

The innovators and opinion leaders Gatorade targeted were athletic trainers. While instrumental in helping players perform better on the field, Gatorade learned athletic trainers were mostly ignored by their teams. By simply giving team trainers attention and product samples, Gatorade turned trainers into brand evangelists for the product. In turn, these athletic trainers turned evangelists helped ensure Gatorade received prominent placement of its iconic orange coolers and logo’d cups on the sidelines of nationally televised games.

When asked about the importance seeding the market with influential sports trainers played in building the Gatorade brand, Rovell responded …

One of the most brilliant strategies that former Gatorade sports marketer Bill Schmidt dreamed up was paying attention to the athletic trainers. No one had ever really cared for them before.

Well, they (trainers) loved Schmidt. He started a fund for them, gave them holiday gifts, organized a trainers group so that they could share information. And, in return, Schmidt got what he wanted -- trainers communicating to athletes the importance of Gatorade as well as the trainers serving as a point of information for the folks at Gatorade should they hear about a competitor entering the marketplace.

Comments

[jbr]

you would think more companies would spend time thinking about other unappreciated people that could potentially influence the placement of a product.

for example, secretaries/administrative assistants are numerous and way more influential than most people think. a smart company would grasp this knowledge and do what Gatorade has done.

tapping into "under appreciated ubiquity" could be a very compelling and cost effective influence mechanism.