If You"re Not Lady Gaga, You're Nobody

Ever notice that to get noticed today you need to almost border on the ridiculous? Or on the outrageous?. 

Take Lady GaGa (pictured on the left) for instance. Not that Lady Gaga is ridiculous, but she is certainly someone who stands apart from her competition. 

Her "brand,” if you will, is a unique blend of musical talent matched with daring costumes and bejeweled elegance. Her demeanor suggests “new, exciting, creative, and relevant" to her target audience.

But let’s get back to ridiculous. And I mean that in a positive way. Ridiculous can be outrageous which can be exciting, fun, and most importantly “attention getting.”

Ever notice that the more ridiculous/outrageous looking people are (Madonna, Boy George) the more we pay attention to them. The more ridiculous/outrageous things they say (Bill Maher, Rush Limbaugh), the more we pay attention to them.  The more ridiculous/outrageous things they do (Evel Knievel, Chris Brown), the more we pay attention to them.

All these folks found a way to differentiate themselves from the crowd which makes them almost household names. They found a way to break through the clutter and GET THEIR MESSAGE HEARD!

So how will you find your ridiculousness; ridiculousness that is both outrageous and relevant.  If you look around, some of the hybrids and some of the FEC’s strive for that in their architecture, their design and in their service and service attendants.  

Their goal is TO BE outrageous; to create buzz and to obviously stimulate your curiosity so you will visit their business and then keep coming back.

You could start there. Or consider some of these ideas (maybe they will stimulate some other thoughts):

Or you could start with an outrageous mascot that is always available for kids parties and adult parties.

Or outrageous service people dressed in top hat and tails.

Or service people wearing white gloves, baggy pants with suspenders  and a bowler hat while wearing white gloves. 

Or valet parking cars.

Or serving 2' ft long hot dogs, 36" pizzas or 2 lb. cheeseburgers.

Or reserving parking spaces for Moms whose kids are having birthdays.

Or getting customers to play a NEW game of bowling, readily available from your scorer manufacturers like Brunswick, Qubica and others.

Or creating marathon bowling events every Friday and Saturday night for prize moneys.

Or becoming a real Rock N Bowl Club with live bands every weekend.

Whats it going to take to get your business to stand out and become a household name in your community? 

What is it going to take to get your message to be heard.  

Because sad to say, and as many proprietors have told me, "We have to find a way to get our message out because what we're doing just isn't working any more."