Last Thursday’s blog was about looking for gaps in an industry, business or service that you can fill. The blog also touched on how you can find these gaps by strategically looking for them, or find them by accident when you least expect to, as I’ve found most of mine.
Recently, in Punta Del Este, Uruguay, where for decades the Argentinians, Brazilians and Paraguayans have come for their Summer Holiday, I stumbled upon a marketing gap that brightened my day and I wanted to share it with you.
There are two components of this marketing brilliance in my mind. The first is the three young guys in the picture below, who came up with a way to create a restaurant in a container.
All the containers are pre-cut and the kitchens inside the same, but with paint and wood exterior, they create different concepts—everything from smoothies, pizza, Chivitos (the UY national sandwich) and barbecue—and stick three or four of these container restaurants into a space.
They make it rustic with distressed everything (note the concepts can quickly change just with paint) add a bar in the back and a constant DJ thumping and voila!—you have a unique, intriguing concept for foodservice that is simple, inexpensive, flexible and has a great vibe. They call it BIGOTE and they operate 3 of these in this little beach town.
Now, drumroll please: The marketing brilliance that I believe has multiple other applications that they applied is below and in the video link here.
So the second component of marketing brilliance is that the owners’ convinced Levi’s to let them open a custom Levi’s bar, where tailors would cut and sew customized Levi’s. Now when we went up to the Levi’s bar, we thought the clothing was for sale but nope! Nothing for sale and the tailoring and customizing service is free. Yep! Free, as long as it is a genuine Levi’s product.
So they recommend you go to the store in La Barra or Punta where Levi’s are sold, buy your jeans, jacket or whatever (as long as it is genuine Levi’s branded) and bring it back to the BIGOTE Bar and they customize it for free.
You see where this is going… everyone wins. BIGOTE gets a buzz and foot traffic with an animated customization bar, Levi’s gets people specifically calling out their brand and the people who are customizing their Levi’s get to party and leave with a custom piece that they can wear to BIGOTE Bar again.
Check out the video, and if you are thinking that an old stale brand like Levi’s can’t get to the millennials, well the proof is right in front of you. In other words (and yes, this pun is fully intended) the “GAP” becomes blatant.
Onward and upward—
AZ
