Saturday, January 05, 2008

Give Your Business More Legroom

The other day I braved frigid temperatures to walk the ½ mile to get my mail. I was rewarded with my January copy of Runner’s World. I was tempted to run back to begin reading but was slowed by all of the icy patches.

I peeled off my layers and ran up the stairs to grab green tea and read the latest running news. Just as my toes were thawing out, an ad caught my eye. The ad read:

Dear Runners,

We now have the most legroom in coach.* Perfect for stretching out those sore quads, calves, hamstrings and pinky toes.

Sincerely,

jetBlue Airways

Now if you’re thinking, “so what?” allow me to enlighten you. I don’t ever recall seeing a jetBlue ad in Runner’s World. I have every issue since January 2002 so I could actually check…but trust me on this one. If there was an ad it didn’t catch my eye like this one.

The ad was ingenious in its sheer simplicity. It spoke directly to runners. Now I have personally always like jetBlue but when traveling for marathons I’ve settled on any airline that was going. Will I think twice next time? You betcha!

The ad is a beautiful example of how easy it is to create a new niche and expand your brand. jetBlue did not rebuild their planes for runners, they simply leveraged an existing asset to an audience with matching needs. Genius.

What business asset do you have that can be used to target a new audience? Answering that question could very well revitalize your business this year. I’d love to hear your ideas on the subject.

I’m off to stretch those sore quads.

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