There’s a new trend emerging across the country in the world of skateboarding. These guys are now taking huge, blue painter’s tarps and “surfing” through them on skate boards in large parking lots.
If you want to see videos of this, they’re all over the Internet.
Now, on the surface, this looks pretty lame, but these guys are causing the sales of giant tarps to fly off the shelves in many cities, and you’ll probably see this in a parking lot near you within the next year.
What in the Sam Hill does skateboarding on a tarp in the parking lot of a local grocery store have to do with your business? EVERYTHING.
Why?
This is about re-purposing your product, content, or services. Surfers wanted a way to keep surfing even when there weren’t any waves. They invented the skateboard. Skateboarders got bored and wanted to pretend there was a huge wave in the parking lot of the local Winn-Dixie… so they whipped out the big, blue tarps.
It’s about taking something that you’ve already created and breathing new life into it.
- Drug makers do this all the time.
- Bloggers re-purpose content and create e-books from it.
- Service providers can take a certain skill they have and bring it to a whole new industry.
When times are tough, re-purposing your existing products, even “sleeper” products that aren’t selling so well, can be a huge money maker for you and can be just what your small business needs in a tough economy.
It’s really time-consuming to invent something new. It’s also very risky. You already have an expertise, so why not milk that knowledge for all it’s worth.
Your homework for today is to go out and find that big, blue tarp in your niche. Find that thing that you can do to re-package, re-use, re-distribute your product in the hot, little hands of a whole new set of customers.
Speaking of ways to attract customers, I am going to be revealing the list of extra goodies to the Underdog Marketing 101 pre-notification list sometime this week. If you want to be able to cash in on everything there is to offer during the launch week, you might want to sign up on the notification list ASAP (upper right corner of the blog)
Have you ever re-purposed a product or service, especially in tough times? Let’s hear about it in the comments below? Have you ever surfed on a tarp? Let’s hear about that too.
In your service,
Joshua Black
http://www.attract-customers.com
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{ 8 comments }
Repurposing old ideas can be a great thing. Evene the “big dogs” have done it. Look at coke. Years back they had “New Coke” then they came out with “Coke Classic”.
It was an absolutely brilliant way to take the idea that their product was dated and turn “dated” into historic.
Sometimes all it takes to “freshen” an old idea is to look on it with a fresh set of eyes and see it from a completely new angle, like the idea of “parking lot surfing”
Many companies use the method of re-formulating, re-grand opening, new signs, new names when old ones no longer work, and many other things.
Often, when you have products that aren’t selling, you can also use your “dogs” as giveaways, or bonus material to push your best selling products as well. Sometimes it can be as simple as re-branding the product to give it new life.
-Joshua Black
Hi Joshua,
Thanks for sharing the inspiration. This has caused me to think about repackaging a few of my offerings. Steve brings up a great example with the series of Cokes.
It’s amazing how slapping on a new label and adding a twist to an old product can create a new sensation.
Ryan Biddulph
Hey Ryan,
It’s just slapping on a new label, but it’s taking the hard work that you have already done and giving it a new purpose, so that you can get that work in front of a whole new set of customers that you would not already have before.
-Josh
What I love about your stuff Joshua is your ability to take something so ordinary and repurpose it into a highly relevant story that makes you think. It’s brilliant.
I have a number of re-purposing content which I’m yet to complete, I just need to finish it off.
Great ideas (as always) Joshua, thanks for sharing.
Thanks Matthew. I try not to repeat myself, but I like to make sure that the messages hit home in different ways, so that people can make the best educated decisions about their business.
-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire
Hahaha, awesome Joshua!
I love the parallels you draw between the real world and business.
This one is especially clever, and I certainly would not have seen the business lesson in this story, I just want to skate a tarp now!
PS: got your email – will reply soon, little girls 1 st birthday this week, so Ive been busier than a one armed brick layer in Baghdad.
Hey Alex,
Maybe you can bring out the giant tarp to the birthday party, eh? Thanks, I like to try and keep it fun. Small business advice is not always a trip to Disney World, so I like to make things as entertaining as possible.
-Josh