Dracula Marketing
By Dave Brown, Sat Dec 10th
You can learn a lot about marketing from Dracula. Dracula hasdone it all. He's made lots of different products. And he's madea killing (so to speak) in a lot of different markets. Youshould try to do what Dracula has done. I just visited the Internet Movie Database ( http://www.imdb.com) and looked up 'Dracula'. It listed 113 that have beenmade about Dracula. How can there be 113 about Dracula?!?To tell you the truth, there are actually more, but the titlesjust didn't show up in a search on 'Dracula'. The oldest movie I could find in the list was made in 1922.Although it was a silent movie, it looks like it was made inGermany. It wasn't really a movie version of the original novel,but it was certainly based on the novel.
And in the 81 years since then, at least 112 more weremade based (in some way) on that same novel. Obviously, people like the novel, or at least the idea behindit. So people have tried to put it on the screen. And they'vedone it in countless different ways. Stay with me. There's a marketing lesson here. Let's look at all of the different markets that Dracula hascatered to. Originally, the novel was transformed into a moviefor people who like movies. Great idea. Later, Dracula were made in different languages, to caterto different markets that don't speak the same language. Dracula père et fils Drakula Istanbul'da and more. But sticking to the original novel, Dracula was really onlyappealing to people who liked horror movies. So eventually, webegan to see very loose interpretations of Dracula for thenon-horror markets. Dracula: Dead and Loving It (comedy) Dracula: The Dirty Old Man(comedy) and more. Movie makers must have also recognized the popularity ofGodzilla and realized that people like watching monstersfight monsters. So then we got... Dracula vs. Frankenstein Los Monstruos del Terror and so on. But there are also that actually take the story ofDracula and build on it. Make it into something more. Add to thestory. like... Dracula's Widow Lady Dracula Son of Dracula Dracula's Dog and soon. And of course, as technology has become more sophisticated,we've seen more visually spectacular Dracula movies. A far cryfrom the original black and whites. People who wouldn't want tosee the original still like to see the modern specialeffects movies. You probably see how this relates to your own marketing efforts.You don't have to come up with something original to besuccessful. You just need to find out what people already likeand put your own twist on it. Can you make something better? Can you change something a little so that it meets a differentneed? Can
you copy an existing product and make it available to adifferent market? Can you use new technology to do something better? It's great if you can come up with something new and innovative.But it's hard to succeed at that. It's much easier to build onwhat other people have already done. Don't just blatantly copysomeone else's ideas. But use their ideas as the foundation thatyou'll build upon. Follow Dracula's example and you'll be in good shape. About the author:Dave Brown is a self-taught marketer and software developer. Healso publishes the uncommon and uniquely original newsletter onmaking the most of your life - A Fresh Perspective. You canlearn more at http://www.dave-brown.com |
