What does roasted corn have to do with marketing techniques?
It’s a “can of corn.” Baseball players and announcers say this when referring to an easy pop-up. Well, selling roasted corn on the cob might not be as easy as catching a fly ball (for some), but I did pick up some good marketing strategy ideas along the way.
While manning a fresh corn on the cob booth over the weekend, I noticed a few marketing strategy concepts that can be implemented for any company. You might not be shucking ears of corn or making Arnold Palmer’s for passing tourists, but selling is selling, no matter what the product.
5 Marketing Strategy Ideas from Roasted Corn
1. Be Unique – The reason the roasted corn stand does well is because of its uniqueness. We weren’t selling the usual fair of corn dogs and burgers. People enjoyed the change of pace.
2. Solid Product – When corn is cooked in husks, you never know what the ear will be like until you shuck it. If the corn was bad, we threw it out. Making sure the product we sold was of good quality made a difference and showed our consistency.
3. Customer Service – Keeping people satisfied doesn’t always have to do with the product itself. Treating each customer with respect, polite smiles and doing whatever is necessary to fix any error keeps their business coming back.
4. Build a Network – The food vendors, even though they are rivals for sales, look out for each other—they are a network. Staying on good terms with the other vendors is beneficial, because you never know when they might hook you up with a root beer float in exchange for some roasted corn.
5. Publicity – Sometimes you have to make your own publicity by having an employee eat an ear of corn and walk through the bustling crowd, allowing the scent of roasted corn to lead them to the booth. Get your product out there as much as possible!
There might not be a specific marketing strategy for roasted corn, but by the number of times I shucked piping hot ears of corn on the cob, it seemed to work. How is your business doing in these five areas?
Photo Credit: Mark H. Anbinder
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