Finding the Hook in Marketing

I just returned from a local Boy Scout council marketing committee meeting. One of our agenda topics was the promotion of Earth Day merit badge workshops. The two merit badges in question are "Energy" and "Nuclear Science." Two professors from SUNY Geneseo are teaching the workshops. Professor Dennis Showers, an Eagle Scout and author of the Energy Merit Badge book and Professor James McLean (physics and astronomy) are leading the workshops. Activities and demonstrations include Geneseo's eGarden, solar powered car and a particle accelerator. Professor Showers will sign copies of the merit badge book that he wrote. Both of these merit badges support our country's emphasis on STEM.

While not always the most popular merit badges, we wanted to get a good turnout for these workshops.

The council publishes a newsletter that is sent directly to parents of scouts. Given the timing of the workshops, we felt as though this could be one of the primary communication vehicles to promote the workshops. There certainly was enough to promote that might spark interest in the workshops, from the solar powered car and the particle accelerator to the eGarden and signed copies of the merit badge book. Yet, were these powerful enough to get the scouts to sign up for the workshops? Then we thought about what parents of scouts want most for their children - success and happiness in life. So why not promote the fact that there are a wide variety of career options in energy, all of which pay quite well. Careers in energy would lead to a comfortable life. And isn't that what merit badges are all about - helping scouts to explore various hobbies and careers?

We decided that our primary communications target is parents. And we we decided that the lead message would be lucrative careers. We will still hype the other fun parts of the day, including visuals of the cool demonstrations the scouts will get to see. This will play well with the scouts themselves. 

This simple promotion exercise led me to think about how everything a marketer tries to sell needs a powerful "hook." This emerges from a solid understanding of the primary target audiences and what is most likely to motivate them to take the actions you intend to have them take. Never neglect the "hook" in your marketing communications.