I watched a very interesting documentary on Channel 4 last night called Czech Dream.

It was about two students who decided, through effective advertising, to open a hypermarket that would never exist to see if people would get drawn in with the advertising methods and hype surrounding it’s cheap prices and dreamy world promises.

So, through TV, leaflets, radio,  billboards etc this "imaginary hypermarket" was advertised. The adverts were pretty unique in that they were simple, clean like the one below.

They would have words in Czech in the bubble above that would say "Don’t go" "Don’t pay money" and then at the bottom it would say "Opening 31st May, you’ll find out where soon"

It was pretty smart advertising and it proved the power of advertising when over 2,000 people turned up for the opening and there was no store there!

So what are the sales and marketing lessons from this?

1. Done correctly an advertising campaign can create the buzz and hype about your product

2. You need to be different in your advertising to create curiosity. They were saying "Don’t go" and "Don’t come" Everyone in the city was talking about this approach

3. It just shows you that you can have a rubbish product or even no product and still create a marketing buzz!

4. People can be easily influenced and swayed with words

Now, I’m not saying that you should scam people but there are valuable lessons to be learned here!

If you want to find out more about the Czech Dream documentary please visit: www.czech-dream.com/  it’s well worth it!

Happy Selling

Sean Mc

PS If you are interested in how to create a sales buzz during your presentations make sure you check out our sales training solutions and sales training open courses

PPS One of the most funniest things about the whole thing was that it was funded with a government grant!

I think we have all watched those movies that either act as a lesson or a warning when it comes to sales and business in general.

I’m thinking of Gordon Gheko in Wall Street and his "Greed is good" speech! I’m talking about Boiler Room and Ben Affleck’s "Group Sales Interview" speech - whilst I am sure we would all love to give that speech, in reality we’d be dragged across the hot coals by HR and personell if we did!

And then there is Alec Baldwin’s "Coffee’s for closers only" speech in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. Alec Baldwin is from HQ and he is sent to "Motivate" and to kick in to action a bunch of real estate salepeople.

It’s enthralling watching. I wonder if you have ever come across any sales managers like this? Hopefully not!

Happy Selling

Sean Mc 

There’s strong language so be warned: