To all the cat /animal lovers out there, I’m really sorry if the title of this blog offends you, but it’s so apt for what I’m about to say. Please bear with me …

In the beginning

Ever since traders started in commerce, they have been searching for the perfect way to reach new and existing customers. In the early years it was done by selling their wares in markets, and those with the loudest voices would shout over the top of the other traders to attract the most attention, and thereby hopefully make the most sales. Back in the day, town criers were actually in demand with good wages paid, however they tended to just deliver news and important notices to their communities; it’s doubtful anyone saw an opportunity to advertise goods and services in the same manner. 

Enter early technology

The printing press was invented in 1439 but wasn’t used to produce newspapers that contained advertising as we know it until 1454. [In case you’re interested, one of the earliest discovered instances of print advertising comes from Thebes in Egypt, a papyrus fragment dated around 3000BC. The advertisement in question was written on behalf of Hapu the weaver and slave owner who was trying to find one of his lost slaves.]

Selling ‘modern-day’ newspapers was made more effective by the ‘paper boys’ who would stand on street corners to sell the latest edition, bellowing at the top of their lungs to “Read all about it”.

Generic junk and targeted junk

This was followed by junk mail – printed generic circulars stuffed into letterboxes on a daily basis which wasn’t good for the planet or the recipient, in most cases. A little later we’d learned to target our audiences better, thanks largely to the creation of electronic databases that contained information from a range of sources, but upper most was the plethora of loyalty programmes that gathered information on buying trends and preferences, along with demographic data, and we started receiving personally addressed junk mail. The novelty quickly wore off.

Networking (though not ‘network marketing’ like Amway)

Around the same time, networking was the silver bullet to obtaining goods or services from reputable sources (it started in the 1990s before social media took off) – you’d simply ask around if you wanted to buy something or get something done. It was a great way to find out who the best (and the worst) were to deal with, which saved us from making expensive mistakes when purchasing anything.

Spam, spam and more spam

Fast forward to present times and you’re more likely to be reached by spam – junk emails, junk texts, junk ads on every app you open, every social media platform you visit, every news feed service you subscribe to. We’re drowning in it – and the means to get your attention is getting sneakier, with some ads almost impossible to close, far less opt out of seeing.

Sponsored Content and Influencers

Added to this is the ‘influencer movement’ where celebrities front ads (or ‘sponsored content’ as it’s now known) for all manner of things. Other ‘influencers’ are made up of less well-known people who have built up a plethora of followers (usually through Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or TikTok) and who share their endorsement, or love of something, with their followers and potential followers, in return for freebies (or money) from the suppliers of said products and services.

Full Circle?

I recently read a posting on LinkedIn that talked about using good old direct mail to reach electronic-weary audiences and it certainly resonated. A couple of examples were used –

‘Don’t just send them a TikTok, send them a postcard instead’

“Social channels like TikTok, Instagram, FB have become saturated as brands flock to ‘bookmarked’ channels.

The nugget is in finding a highway less travelled to drive on – Direct Mail is one of them. Where does direct mail work best? With younger people. Older generations associate mail with bills and expenses. Younger generations get everything digitally. Physical mail feels like a gift, not a sell.

Two great examples:

Nestle (KitKat Chunky) sent customers a card saying, “We’re sorry we couldn’t deliver your parcel” because it was too chunky. They could redeem a free KitKat at a local shop.

LavOnline (Laundry Service). The shipping box turned into a T-shirt target, encouraging recipients to stain it with a squishy tomato. Result: 15% more traffic and 32% signed up.

Traditional channel strategies may well still have a place in your media mix.”

[Thanks to Mike Bayly for sharing this post]

In summary

So there are many ways to reach your potential marketing audience and future customer base if you’re prepared to approach it with an open mind, a dollop of curiosity, and some creativity thrown in. Just because it’s been done before doesn’t mean it can’t be done again, especially if it’s done well and done differently. To quote an old Aussie marketing guru, Winston Marsh, “Don’t do what everyone else does; do what everyone else doesn’t do.”

And remember, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, or any animal for that matter. So where does the creepy expression come from? 

The saying "there's more than one way to skin a cat" means that there are multiple methods to achieve the same goal. Its origins are somewhat unclear, but it appears to date back to at least the 19th century.

The phrase was first recorded in print in the 1840s. The earliest known instance is from a book titled The Knapsack (1840) by Robert Montgomery, which contains a variation of the phrase. The expression likely uses "skin a cat" metaphorically, as it relates to the idea of accomplishing a task in various ways, rather than referring literally to the act of skinning a cat.

The phrase has persisted in English vernacular, often used to encourage creative problem-solving or to remind someone that there are alternative approaches to a challenge. Despite its somewhat grim imagery, it has become a common idiom in everyday language.

And there you have it.  We’ll look at reinventing the wheel in a future blog! 😊