Alternative Product Uses

My car is a chevy from the mid-90’s. Surprisingly it’s in great shape, except for a bit of rust along the bottom interior of the driver side door. At first I thought about sanding the affected area down and repainting. But my parents had an alternate suggestion, apply Vaseline to the rusty spots. Well after doing this for the past few years, I’m happy to report the corrosion hasn’t spread. Add rust protection to Vaseline’s varied, and seemingly limitless uses.

This story is related to an article that appeared a few days ago in AdWeek. The piece delves into examples of people finding different uses for common brands. For instance, men are lathering Preparation H on their upper bodies before going out on weekends. Apparently, the medication increases muscle definition in addition to shrinking hemmoroids. It’s a case of people looking for advantage with unusual means. When I ran highschool track our coaches use to have us drink apple cider vinegar after practice. They believed the brew aided muscle recovery. At one meet they made the gatorade/cider concoction too strong. When our 400X4 team finished their race, they heaved their bowels after swallowing the sour drink… but I digress.

More importantly, the Adweek piece highlights how P&G embraced, and promoted alternate uses for Bounce dryer sheets thereby increasing sales of the brand.

What can you learn from this marketing nugget? Consider relinquishing some control over your message and product. Promoting the creative, often zany uses people have for your product can take a brand in a new growth oriented direction. Just be sure the alternate applications you embrace do not undermine established strengths.