And I thought ice-cream trucks went the way of the dinosaurs…or the milkmen. Apparently not, for the past few weeks I’ve been seeing and hearing one just like this:
Then it just hit me: the ice-cream truck, just like the milkman are the absolute antithesis of everything I’ve been talking about under inbound marketing, i.e. letting the customer find you. Clearly, they must do the exact opposite: find and reach out to every single customer directly. And of course that points out the risk with outbound marketing and sales: you really, really have to know your market. Residential neighbourhoods were the obvious target for the milkman in the pre-refrigerator era. All (OK, most) families needed fresh milk.
But what is the ice-cream truck doing in my street? I would think the obvious market is places with a high concentration of kids: parks, playgrounds…etc (not sure if they would be allowed close to schools, kindergartens). But my street? It’s a lot less busy than the one on the video, with only about a dozen houses and a dead-end cul-de-sac. The truck arrives, plays music (OK, kinda cute), waits in the cul-de-sac and leaves. That’s a lot of time and gas for zero sales. I don’t get it. Knowing who your customers are and targeting accordingly is important with inbound marketing, but is absolutely critical with outbound direct sales. This guy will go bankrupt soon.
Unless he knows something I don’t – I’m waiting to see how this ends.
Are you sure he sells ice cream?
Nice post Zoli. I like the metaphor. That’s one that will stick! I just posted it here: http://www.inboundmarketing.com/upcoming/newest.
Rick
@Rick,
Better stick than melt
@Jan,
Ouch, never thought about it… don’t want to know about it… time to move to new neighborhood?
Bail him out Zoli! Buy an ice cream! (And then send him to my street)