BUSINESS EDU Going Gonzo: Using Unconventional Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Dive Business – by Cathryn Castle Garcia, Owner, ClearStoryCoach.com, The Azores Cathryn is a writer, business strategist, & co-owner of C2G2Productions.com, a multimedia production company.
I’m excited to be a DEMA-featured speaker at the upcoming DEMA trade event in Orlando, FL, November 11- 14. If you’re attending DEMA, opt for the Educational Package, which costs only a few dollars more than general admittance and gives you the best all- around access to the show floor and
The best gonzo marketing combines the element of sur- prise, plus creativity, plus fun to capture attention. By lighting up emotions like joy and curiosity, we create a buzz that can make our marketing go viral on social media. And through good old-fashioned word of mouth. The keys are: Be creative. Do something unexpected, clever, and fun. ▪ Keep it simple. Make sure your marketing message is ▪ clear and actionable. Make it easy to remember and share. ▪ Think organic, low-cost. You don’t need a big budget ▪ to make a big impact. Stay true to your brand. Don’t step outside your brand ▪ just to generate a buzz. That’d be a buzzkill. What Gonzo Isn’t : I’m not proposing marketing strategies that involve prank-pulling or publicity stunts that shock or offend people. And we don’t want to do anything that vio- lates the law. The aim is to attract potential clients, not enrage anyone. In the DEMA-sponsored session, we’ll outline ways to push the edge of the marketing envelope and increase sales without plunging our busi- ness’s credibility off a cliff.
the special sessions. Several other regular contributors here are also DEMA-featured speakers, so it’s a great bang-for- buck investment. In this issue I’m overviewing one of my sessions, titled, “Going Gonzo: How to Use Unconventional Marketing to Grow Your Business.” What is “Gonzo”? The term likely comes from Italian American slang, where “gonzo” meant “foolish” or “crazy.” The most widely accepted origin traces it to the early 1970s and Hunter S. Thompson, a writer who popularized a wild and unconventional reporting style that got dubbed gonzo
journalism. The word quickly gained broader cultural currency, coming to mean anything bizarre or off-the-wall. Inciden- tally, the Muppets got on the gonzo train in the early 1970s too, introducing the crazy dare- devil character, Gonzo the
Where and How to Go Gonzo : Once we get a handle on what gonzo marketing is and how to make it work, the possi- bilities are limited only by your
imagination. Main areas we’ll focus on include: Your business’s social media presence and promotional ▪ calendar. Your physical location (storefront/classroom/pool). ▪ Trip planning and events. ▪ The best gonzo marketing plans start by putting lots of ideas on the drawing board. I suggest scheduling a “no idea is a dumb idea” brainstorming meeting with your team. Preferably with pizza as fuel for creativity. My motto in busi- ness and in life is, “Make if fun. Let it be easy.” With the right attitude and objectives, marketing can be both. Business-to-consumer marketing. ▪ Business-to-business marketing. ▪ An easy way to start compiling “gonzo light” marketing ideas is to click on a calendar website that lists the year’s na-
Great. (Also incidentally, if you’re ever in a creative dry spell, it’s practically a scientific fact that watching an episode of The Muppet Show will fill your brain with sparkly new ideas.) I use the word gonzo to define the ABCS of marketing strategies I consider to be Audacious/Alternative, Bold/Brave, Clever/Crazy (but crazy as in crazy good fun, not anything dangerous or malicious). And the S? S is for silly. Slightly silly. Because even though growing a business is serious business, it doesn’t pay to take ourselves too seriously. This kind of marketing is also known as guerilla marketing. I’m not fond of the term guerilla marketing because it bor- rows from guerilla warfare, in which small military forces strike using nontraditional tactics. I’d rather keep it on the bright side; gonzo has a nicer ring to it.
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