The 2005 remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory starring Johnny Depp and Freddie Highmore, provides a vital lesson in marketing. Willy Wonka hides five golden tickets under the wrappers of five ordinary chocolate bars and the world goes crazy for them. But, why? He promised that the winner would receive a gift beyond their wildest imagination and even the losers would go home with a truck full of chocolate. It’s genius in that, without even knowing what the reward would be, you knew it would be something extraordinary and that was worth the financial risk of buying tons of Wonka Bars just for the potential opportunity.

How can you implement this strategy within your own business?

Obviously, most of us are not as loaded as the infamous Willy Wonka and you don’t need to be. Doing product giveaways or splitting the price in half for a couple of your consultations etc. provides this same feeling of – “I gotta have it.” Cash prizes and cars are also alluring but, if you can’t afford those options – get creative. True genius lives in the art and execution of creativity.

One more time for those in the back.

True genius lives in the art and execution of creativity.

If you own an e-commerce brand, for example, promise a bundle of your items worth up to $200.00, hypothetically, to the best TikTok video challenge in one of your garments. You may be thinking, I’m spending $200.00 for potential TikTok video engagement? Yes, you are getting exposure to the contestants audiences and those people may be the kind of people that would purchase from your store. But, it also encourages those who have already purchased from your store to show it off and User Generated Content can be very lucrative. Marketing is not risky, it’s an essential part of any business and as we know, most of the marketing today stems from social media – so, at least give it a try.

If Willy Wonka had told everyone to make a crazy TikTok video featuring his chocolate and the best one gets an unbelievable prize, they would’ve done it by the thousands, hundreds of thousands. But I get it, we aren’t Willy Wonka or Jay-Z or Johnny Depp but, they all started somewhere too and I doubt they were thinking small on the journey – so think B I G!

You got this!

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