• Survey of Rural Challenges
  • Small Town Speaker Becky McCray
  • Shop Local video
  • SaveYour.Town

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

A row of small town shops
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS

Self Replicating Awesomeness – The Marketing of No Marketing

By Becky McCray

Self Replicating Awesomeness – The Marketing of No Marketing was an odd title for a panel, but it was an interesting discussion. Here are the thoughts of six amazing marketers talking about a different way of marketing.

“When we talk about marketing, we mean bad marketing, because good marketing you don’t notice.”
Parmet

“Either you understand that you don’t exist without said customers, or you don’t and it’s in your DNA. No blog or bling or swag will change that.”
Schultz

“The more I give away, the more I get.”
Hunt

“They are not your community.”
“I didn’t really think of the people drinking the wine as ‘the Stormhoek Community.’ They were just cool people having fun with the wine.”
MacLeod

Larger companies are starting to listen to customers who complain. Why aren’t you also listening to the ones who love you? Talk and listen, especially as a small company, so that it is ingrained as you grow.
Schultz

What Doc Searls called the “Because Effect.” We are giving it away because that’s helping us make more somewhere else.
Heuer

Marketing is moving away from our message (i.e. Come Fly the Friendly Skies) to being about you. (i.e. You’re cool. Here’s some wine.)
MacLeod

Follow up and tell the stories of the people you interact with. The people who received Stormhoek Wine were asked to send back pics of their wine parties. Those pics were shared on Flickr.
Schultz

If your product is too expensive or tough to give away demos or samples, then think of creating social objects that are cool/relevant/free and give them away.
MacLeod

The iProspect CEO Frederick Markini said, “The brands with the best storytellers win.”
Heuer

Nothing replaces listening.
Schultz

Read Heuer’s own summary at The Golden Rules of Marketing.

Panel Participants:

  • Chris Heuer Partner, The Conversation Group
  • Tara Hunt Co-Founder, Citizen Agency
  • Jeremiah Owyang Forrester
  • Deborah Schultz Founder/Chief Catalyst, deborahschultz.com
  • David Parmet Owner, Marketing Begins At Home LLC
  • Hugh MacLeod Grand Pooh-Bah, gapingvoid.com

New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates. Want more stories? Read our shared stories from all over.

  • About the Author
  • Latest by this Author
Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

www.beckymccray.com
  • Start smaller: Any local business can be your incubator
  • Should I ask competitors before I start a business in a small town?
  • Will trendy axe throwing and escape room businesses last? More experience-based retail: the Hat Bar

March 15, 2008 Filed Under: marketing

Wondering what is and is not allowed in the comments?
Or how to get a nifty photo beside your name?
Check our commenting policy.
Use your real name, not a business name.


Don't see the comment form?
Comments are automatically closed on older posts, but you can send me your comment via this contact form and I'll add it manually for you. Thanks!

Comments

  1. Mark Harbeke says

    March 25, 2008 at 8:44 pm

    Great insight. I think the theme of transitioning from “us” to “you” is valid across industries and locations. We’ve seen that among (I hesitate to say “our”) constituents, leaders of really innovative small firms: they want communications from us that do more to share their news and growth stories with each other. In essence, we become a mirror for them. And as long as the technology is in place and works the same way for everyone, that’s not too tall of an order. It’s something we’re working on on both the e-mail and web front.

    Thanks for sharing, Becky.

    Loading...
  2. Becky McCray says

    March 25, 2008 at 8:49 pm

    Mark, I love the idea of your group as a mirror for the community! That concept could help shape decision making on many levels! Excellent! Now if I could get my favorite membership group to adopt it …

    Thanks, Mark!

    Loading...

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

If you would like permission to re-use an article you've read here, please make a Reprint Request.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

Partners

We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses. Logo with "Shop Indie Local"Move Your Money, bank local, invest localMulticolor logo with text that says "Global Entrepreneurship Week"Save Your Town logotype

Best of Small Biz Survival

A few people shopping in an attractive retail store in refurbished downtown building.

TREND 2025: Retail’s Big Split: what small town retailers can do now

99% of the best things you can do for your town don’t require anyone’s permission

Three kids in a canoe

Get started as an outdoor outfitter without breaking the bank

A shopkeeper and a customer share a laugh in a small store packed full of interesting home wares.

How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores

Rural Tourism Trend: electric vehicle chargers can drive visitors

Wide view of a prairie landscape with a walk-through gate in a fence

Tourism: Make the most of scant remains and “not much to see” sites with a look-through sign

More of the best of Small Biz Survival

Copyright © 2025 Becky McCray
Front Page · Log in
%d