17 classic marketing cases

Marketing Tips Fables Series 1: Two Salesmen

This is a well-known fable in the marketing world:

The two shoe manufacturing companies each sent a salesman to develop the market, one named Jackson and the other named Ban Jing.

On the same day, the two of them came to an island country in the South Pacific. On the day of arrival, they found that all the locals were barefoot and did not wear shoes! From the king to the pauper, from the monk to the lady, no one wore shoes.

That night, Jackson sent a telegram to his boss at the domestic headquarters: "Oh my God, people here never wear shoes. Who would buy shoes? I will go back tomorrow."

Ban Jing also sent a telegram to the company's headquarters in China: "Great! People here don't wear shoes. I decided to move my family here and stay here for a long time!" Two years later, everyone here wore shoes...

Marketing inspiration:

Many people often complain that it is difficult to open up new markets. The fact is that the new market is right in front of you, it’s just a matter of how you discover it.

Marketing Tips Fable Series 2: Two Minibuses

There is a bus line right in front of my house that goes from the alley to the train station. I don’t know if it’s because the route is short or because there are few people along the way, but the bus company only arranged two minibuses to go back and forth.

The people who drove 101 were a couple, and the people who drove 102 were also a couple.

Most of the people on the bus are boat people. Since they live on the water for a long time, when they enter the city, they usually come with their whole family. The hostess of No. 101 rarely lets children buy tickets. Even if a couple brings several children, she turns a blind eye and only asks the boat people to buy two adult tickets. Some boat people felt bad and insisted on buying tickets for their older children. She smiled and said to the children, "Bring a small river clam next time, okay? This time you can ride for free."

The hostess of Room 102 is just the opposite. As long as there are children, the older ones have to buy full tickets, and the younger ones have to buy half tickets. She always said that this bus was contracted and that a certain amount of money had to be paid to the passenger transport company every month. If the payment was not made in full in a certain month, the business would be closed down immediately. The boat people also understood this and several people paid for several tickets, so everything was fine every time. However, three months later, the number 102 at the door disappeared. I heard it was closed. It fulfilled what the hostess of No. 102 said: she would soon be unable to continue her business because there were so few people taking her bus.

Marketing inspiration:

Loyal customers are cultivated through affection, and their loyalty is also gained through little discounts. When we stubbornly implement our sales policies, how many loyal customers have we let go?

Marketing Marketing Fables Series 3: Two Small Shops

There are two small shops selling porridge.

The number of customers between the one on the left and the one on the right is almost the same, with a constant stream of people coming in and out. However, when settling the bills in the evening, the one on the left always had a hundred yuan more than the one on the right. This happens every day.

So I walked into the porridge shop on the right. The waitress welcomed me in with a smile and served me a bowl of porridge. He asked me: "Do you want to add eggs?" I said yes. So she added an egg for me.

Every time a customer comes in, the waiter will ask: "Do you want eggs?" Some say yes, while others say no, with about half and half saying equally.

I walked into the small shop on the left again. The waitress also welcomed me in with a smile and served me a bowl of porridge. Asked me: "Add one egg or two eggs?" I smiled and said, "Add one."

When another customer comes in, the waiter asks again: "Would you like one egg or two eggs?" Those who like eggs ask for two, while those who don't ask for one. There are also requests not to add it, but they are rare. At the end of the day, the small shop on the left will sell many more eggs than the one on the right.

Marketing inspiration:

Leave room for others, and strive to gain as much territory as possible for yourself. Only in this way can you win silently. Sales is not just a matter of method, it is more about the understanding of consumer psychology.

Marketing Tips Fables Series 4: The Antelope and the Lion

Every morning, an African antelope wakes up and knows that she must run faster than the fastest African lion, or she will be eaten; every morning, an African lion wakes up and knows that he must run faster than the slowest antelope, or he will starve to death;

Whether you are a lion or an antelope, when the sun rises you have to start running.

Marketing inspiration:

Run! In this competitive society, if a company stagnates and is still immersed in its past glory, its ultimate fate will be either to be eaten up or to starve to death.

Marketing Fables Series 5: The White Goose is Caught

White geese often gather at the lakeside, where many of them often choose suitable places to roost.

The leader of the geese also arranged a white goose to stand guard at night, and when it saw someone approaching, it would call out to alert the enemy.

Hunters in the lake area are familiar with the living habits of white geese. At night, they would deliberately light torches. The sentinel geese saw the fire and started to cackl, and the hunter put out the fire again. When the geese were startled and flew up, there was no more movement, and the geese returned to their original place to rest with peace of mind. After this happened three or four times, the geese thought the sentinel goose was trying to deceive them, so they all pecked it.

At this time, the hunter approached the flock of geese with a torch.

The sentinel goose was afraid that the flock of geese would peck it, so it dared not call again. The hunters caught the sleeping geese in their net, and not a single one escaped.

Marketing inspiration:

Any enterprise will face the test of the market. When competitors make their first attempt, the early warning system established by the enterprise - "the sentinel white goose" plays a role. The enterprise is ready for battle, but there is no reaction from the competitors. However, after repeated attempts, even the company itself gradually relaxed its vigilance, resulting in the competitor winning the battle.

Marketing Fables Series 6: Animals Pulling Carts

The pike, the shrimp and the swan became good friends at some point. One day, they all found a cart at the same time. There were many delicious foods on the cart, so they wanted to drag the cart off the road. The three guys took up the heavy burden together. They put all their strength into it, with veins exposed on their bodies. However, no matter how they dragged, pulled and pushed, the cart remained in the same place and could not move at all.

It turns out that the swan was lifting up to the sky, the shrimp was dragging itself backwards step by step, and the pike was pulling it towards the pond. So who was right and who was wrong? Anyway, they all tried their best.

Marketing inspiration:

An enterprise's marketing team has people with different talents. They all have the spirit of serving the enterprise, but if the enterprise does not use their talents together to make the enterprise's marketing force form a synergy, then in the end it will be useless to blame anyone.

Marketing Fables Series 7: Giving Orders to the Tiger

When a man was an official in Jingzhou, tigers in the mountains often came out to eat people and livestock. The people asked the county magistrate to get rid of the hungry tiger.

This man only issued an order to expel the tiger and had it carved on a very high rock. Coincidentally, the tiger left Jingzhou for some reason, and he proudly thought that his order was effective.

Soon, he was transferred to another place to serve as an official. The people in this place are very stubborn and difficult to govern.

He believed that since the order carved on the rock in Jingzhou could subdue the ferocious tiger, it could also intimidate the literate common people, so he asked someone to go to Jingzhou to copy the stone carving. As a result, not only was the place not governed well, but the official lost his job because of improper governance.

Marketing inspiration:

Many businesses have a history of successful marketing and have made huge profits through these methods. However, when a new market appears, the environment and consumer psychology have changed, and the company's original "successful" methods will cause the company to fail.

The revelation here is that every company has its own marketing model, but when the market changes, the company should adjust its marketing strategy to adapt to the market. After all, the market is always right.

Marketing Fables Series 8: Two Consumers’ Experiences

At the gate of heaven, two foreign old ladies met. God asked them to each tell the happiest thing in their lives.

"I have saved money all my life and finally I can live in a new house for a day. I have no regrets in my life." said the old Chinese lady happily.

"I have lived in this house all my life, and before I died, I finally paid off the loan for the house." The American old lady also said happily.

God sighed and said, "Different choices will lead to different results."

Marketing inspiration:

The backward consumption consciousness accumulated by many consumers in our country in the past makes them unwilling to choose consumer credit when their consumption capacity is limited, which can only cause sadness for Chinese old ladies. However, potential demand is a kind of existing resource that can be guided through publicity. Marketers create new marketing methods to gain consumers' recognition and tap into potential needs.

Marketing Fables Series 9: Tiger Survival

There was a hunter who dug a trap in the deep mountains and placed a hunting tool there. As long as the wild animal's foot touched it, the trap would clamp the animal's hoof tightly.

Once, a hapless tiger came out to hunt for food and accidentally stepped on this hunting tool, and the tiger couldn't get free. What should a tiger do if it knows that it will be beheaded if caught by a hunter? Is it necessary for this seven-foot long body to suffer for the sake of these few-inch tiny feet? No, it’s more important to escape. The tiger became angry and jumped and leaped desperately, breaking its claws and finally escaping.

Marketing inspiration:

Every enterprise may fall into market traps in the market. These traps may come from capital shortage, organizational chaos, customer abandonment, dealer rebellion, etc. But when the enterprise realizes that this is a trap, will it be like this tiger and would rather sacrifice the part to preserve the whole in a crisis?

Marketing Fables Series 10: Imitation

A man wanted to make a set of furniture, so he went to the woods, cut down a tree, and began to saw it into boards. When this man sawed a tree, he placed one end of the trunk on the stump and sat on it. He also drove a wedge into the gap he had made, and then continued sawing. After a while, he pulled out the wedge and drove it into a new place.

A monkey sat on a tree and watched him do all this, thinking: It turns out that felling wood is so easy.

The man was tired from work and lay down to take a nap. The monkey climbed down and sat on the tree trunk, imitating the man's movements and started to saw the tree. It was very easy for the monkey to saw the tree, but when the monkey was about to pull out the wedge, the tree closed up and clamped its tail.

The monkey screamed in pain and struggled hard, waking the person up. Finally, he was tied up with ropes.

Marketing inspiration:

Japanese companies started out by imitating European and American products, but they were innovative in their imitation, which contributed to the 30 years of prosperity of the Japanese economy.

The products produced by many companies in our country are imitations of those of European and American companies, but we do not innovate in the imitation, so the core technologies of many products such as televisions and DVDs are not in our hands. This is like a monkey's tail, which will be caught by a tree if you are not careful. This shows that imitation is important, but innovation is more critical.

Marketing Fables Series 11: Treating the Hunchback

There was a doctor who claimed to be a hunchback specialist. On his sign was written: "Whether your hunchback is like a bow, a shrimp, or a rice pot, I will treat you and it will be fine!"

A hunchback believed it and asked him to treat him. He took two pieces of wood, and did not prescribe any medicine for the hunchback, nor did he give him any medicine. He put one piece of wood on the ground and asked the hunchback to lie on it. He put the other piece of wood on the hunchback's body and then tied it tightly with a rope. Then he jumped onto the board and stomped on it desperately. The hunchback kept crying for help, but he ignored him. As a result, the hunchback was straightened, but the man died.

The hunchbacked son argued with the doctor, but the doctor said, "I only want to straighten his hunchback. I don't care whether he lives or dies!"

Marketing inspiration:

Customer needs are diverse, and customer preferences are also diverse. The problem of corporate marketing is to find products and methods that solve customer needs, and such products and methods can meet customer needs. This is successful marketing.

Many companies boast in their advertisements that their products can solve various problems. However, when customers purchase and use the products and see no results, they have no one to turn to for redress.

Marketing Fables Series XII: The Lamb Eating Grass

A hungry lamb found two meadows A and B in the desert. It ran towards meadow A first. When it got near meadow A, it found that meadow B was more lush than A, so it gave up A and ran towards B.

When it came to the lawn of B, it found that B was not as lush as A. Then it ran back to grassland A.

After repeating this several times, when it had no more strength left, it was exactly between two patches of grass. Since there was no grass to eat, it starved to death.

Marketing inspiration:

Decision-making theory believes that decision-making is to choose the best option from many options. However, in fact, this is impossible in many cases. Therefore, another principle of decision-making is the satisfaction principle, that is, as long as the result of the decision satisfies the decision maker, it is fine.

This principle also applies to marketing decisions. When we are obsessed with finding the best solution, great marketing opportunities slip away quietly, ultimately resulting in nothing being accomplished.

Marketing Fables Series 13: The Clever Newsboy

In a certain area, there were two newsboys selling the same newspaper, and they were competitors.

The first newsboy was very hardworking. He hawked his newspapers on the street every day with a loud voice, but the number of newspapers he sold was not many, and there was a trend of decreasing.

The second newsboy was willing to use his brain. In addition to hawking his newspapers on the street, he also insisted on going to certain fixed places every day. Once there, he would distribute newspapers to everyone and then come back to collect the money after a while. The more places I get to know, the more newspapers I sell, but of course there is some loss.

The first newsboy was able to sell fewer and fewer newspapers, and he had to find another way to make a living.

Marketing inspiration:

There is a lot of meaning in the second newsboy's actions:

First, in a fixed area, the number of readers for the same newspaper is limited. If someone buys my newspaper, he won’t buy his. I will send out the newspaper first, and the person who gets the newspaper will definitely not buy other people’s newspapers. It means that if I occupy the market first, the more I develop, the smaller his market will be. This is a blow to competitors' profits and confidence.

Second, newspapers do not have a complex decision-making process like other consumer goods. They are mostly purchased randomly and are generally not returned due to quality issues. And the amount of money is not much, so people will not refuse to pay. If there is no change today, they will give it tomorrow. As an educated person, you won't make things difficult for children.

Third, even if someone reads the newspaper and returns it without paying, it doesn't matter. First, there will always be a backlog of newspapers. Second, he has already read the newspaper and will definitely not buy the same one again. Or your own potential customers.

From this story we can learn a lot about marketing terms such as consumers, market share, potential consumers, and loyal customers.

Marketing Fables Series 14: Sheep and Wolf

A sheep went to heaven and said to St. Peter: "I have a pair of horns on my head, which are weapons to attack enemies and protect myself, but why am I always eaten by wolves?"

St. Peter said, "Although you and the wolf are both mammals, you live on grass and tree leaves, while the wolf lives on meat. On the land of the earth, as long as there is water, there are weeds and trees everywhere. When you want to eat, you just need to open your mouth. It is much easier to survive than a wolf. The survival of a wolf depends on defeating and eating its opponent, otherwise its life will be in danger. You are too content with the status quo and lack the awareness and ability to protect yourself. Although you have a flock of sheep, you do not have the collective strength of a group. From the wolves, we can see that they have a keen sense of smell to discover prey. When they attack their prey, they have the courage to move forward and the indomitable spirit. They combine ferocity and wit to improve their ability to defeat their prey, and the wolf pack has the spirit and ability to work together against the enemy. In other words, you only have the nature of a sheep, while the wolf has the nature of a wolf. This is the difference."

Marketing inspiration:

"Sheep nature" actually means being content with the status quo and lacking the willingness to cooperate in a group, while "wolf nature" refers to being proactive, competitive and having a spirit of group cooperation. In marketing management, choosing a leader with wolf-like qualities is the key prerequisite for resisting attacks from competitors and defeating opponents.

Marketing Fables Series 15: The Kangaroo and the Cage

One day, the zoo managers discovered that a kangaroo had escaped from its cage, so they held a meeting to discuss the issue. They all agreed that the cage was too low. So they decided to increase the height of the cage from the original 10 meters to 20 meters. The next day they found that the kangaroos still ran out, so they decided to increase the height to 30 meters. Unexpectedly, the next day, the kangaroos were seen running outside again, so the administrators became very nervous and decided to go all out and increase the height of the cage to 100 meters.

One day the giraffe was chatting with some kangaroos. "Do you think these people will continue to raise the height of your cages?" asked the giraffe. "It's hard to say." The kangaroo said, "If they keep forgetting to close the door!"

Management experience: Things have "primary and secondary", "importance and non-importance", and "urgent and non-urgent". Closing the door is the primary, and raising the cage is the secondary. If you ignore the primary and pursue the secondary, you will certainly not get the point. What is management? Management is to first analyze the main and secondary contradictions of things, recognize the "primary and secondary", "importance", and "urgency" of things, and then start from the important aspects.

Marketing Fables Series 16: Three Travelers

Three travelers checked into a hotel at the same time. When they left the house in the morning, one traveler took an umbrella, one took a walking stick, and the third had nothing in his hands.

When they returned at night, the person holding the umbrella got his clothes wet, the person holding the crutches fell and was covered in mud, but the person with empty hands was fine. The first two people were very surprised and asked the third person why.

The third traveler did not answer, but asked the man holding the umbrella, "Why did you get wet instead of falling?"

"When it rained, I was glad I had the foresight to walk boldly in the rain with an umbrella, though my clothes still got quite wet. In muddy and difficult places, I walked carefully without a cane, so I didn't fall."

The man with the cane said, "When it rains, I walk where I can hide from the rain or stop to rest without an umbrella. When I walk in muddy and difficult places, I use my cane, but I fall down." The empty-handed traveler laughed and said, "When it rains, I walk where I can hide from the rain. When the road is difficult to walk on, I walk carefully. That's why I don't get wet and I don't fall down. You have the advantage of relying on others, so you are not careful enough and think that you can have no problem because of the advantage. That's why the one with the umbrella gets wet and the one with the cane falls down."

Marketing inspiration:

In the marketing process, advantages are relative. Only by creating advantages by relying on the objective marketing environment can we win the market.

Marketing Fables Series XVII: Selling Wine and Dogs

There was a wine seller in the State of Song. The wine he brewed was rich and fragrant, he did business honestly and fairly, he treated his customers attentively and attentively, and the wine flag outside his shop was fluttering in the wind, but he just couldn't sell his wine. After a long time, the wine turned sour. The wine seller was very puzzled, so he went to ask an elder in the neighborhood. The elder told him: "The dog you raised is too fierce. People are afraid of being bitten by the dog. Who dares to buy your wine? It is understandable that the wine has turned sour.

Marketing inspiration:

From a business perspective, the wine seller in Song State did a good job, but he raised a ferocious dog and ruined his business.

In commercial enterprise marketing, the truth that dogs are fierce but wine is sour is everywhere. In many news reports, we have seen incidents such as body searches and insults to customers. With so many fierce dogs in a company, how can customers dare to come and how can the goods be sold?