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Lesson #1: Pump Up Your Marketing with Promotions

Article Overview: “Our competition spends over a billion dollars a year. We can’t play by their rules,” van Stolk once said. “When you’re marketing without money, you have to stay true to the fact that you need to make an emotional connection.”

Lesson #1: Pump Up Your Marketing with Promotions

“Our competition spends over a billion dollars a year. We can’t play by their rules,” van Stolk once said. “When you’re marketing without money, you have to stay true to the fact that you need to make an emotional connection.”

If there was one thing van Stolk never had a lot of, it was money for marketing. The budget of his industry competitors for television commercials alone was more than van Stolk’s entire marketing budget. It was to that end that van Stolk sought to find other ways to get word of his company out there. It just so happened that those other ways also managed to lend themselves to the company’s edgy, alternative image. After all, the target market of Jones Soda were primarily a young generation of cynics when it came to conventional advertising.

In its 13 years in business, Jones Soda has become a master promoter, one which competitors continually look to for innovative ways to spread their messages. Jones Soda was one of the first companies to ever enter into a sponsorship deal with athletes in extreme and alternative sports. Before van Stolk, no company had ever thought to back snowboarders, skateboarders or BMX (bicycle) riders. From there, he went on to sponsor ballerinas, spelling bee contestants, and even a 10 year old gospel singer.

In addition to sponsorships, van Stolk came up with the idea to have two brightly-coloured Jones Soda RVs travel around the U.S. nine months out of the year. Especially meant to keep in touch with the 12 to 24 year old demographic, the roving RVs visit everywhere from small skate parks in the tiniest cities, to county fairs, to major competitions for extreme sports, including the X Games, handing out samples of their products. The RV drivers are also expected to study the children, noting which products they’re most interested in, and taking that information back to company headquarters.

The RVs even turn up to places where they are less than welcome, such as high schools, where teachers have had them removed much to the excitement of the school children. In fact, getting kicked out of venues often does more for the company’s rebellious image than staying and handing out samples. One of the RVs has actually been banned form Nassau County in New York, something its driver is quite proud of.

Van Stolk also learned quickly the power of online promotions, having turned the Jones Soda website into an interactive community, chockfull with “free stuff.” At little cost to the company, Jones provides consumers with hundreds of free downloadable goodies, including prize packages for contests that are electronic and downloadable. As a result, the company’s website has become a popular online hangout. So much so that when Jones Soda manufactured 6,000 bottles of its quirky Turkey and Gravy Soda, it sold out within just two hours of appearing online.

In its most popular contest to date, Jones Soda ran the 10,000th Label Contest. Fans voted for their favourite photo of the Top 20 that Jones Soda picked. The winner’s photo would then appear on a special edition bottle. In all, more than 5,000 votes were cast.

That is the power of Jones Soda’s promotions, and that is why other companies continue to look to van Stolk’s creations for inspiration.

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Article Tags: alternative sports, ballerinas, bicycle riders, bmx bicycle, company headquarters, county fairs, emotional connection, gospel singer, industry competitors, jones soda, marketing budget, marketing without money, old gospel, skateboarders, sponsorship deal, target market, television commercials, van stolk, x games, young generation



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