In marketing class today we discussed a case on Red Bull and guerilla marketing. It was a good discussion and I kept thinking about two things: 1) the social pressure to conform and 2) the human desire to learn.

social pressure can drive almost any decision

Did you buy dot-com stocks on 1995? Were you buying them in 2000? By 2000, everyone was talking about dot-com stocks. You cant lose, they said. The returns are enormous, they said. The rules of risk are outdated, this is a new market, they said. At least that is what they said until 2001.

I am a bit of a rebel on some things. I dont care much for fashion o popular music. I define what I like and pursue it on my own. But I do feel pressure in financial matters.

I felt a ton of pressure in 2000 to buy dot-coms and I felt a ton of pressure last year to buy real estate. Even though I have training on financial risk and my head knows what a bad move it is, my heart still tugs. It is HARD not to do something when everyone else is doing it and talking about it.

This is power of social pressure and companies that can exploit it do well. Red Bull took advantage of this social pressure by seeding the market with their product. They put it in exclusive clubs, got famous celebs to use it, and generally got people talking about it. Once they got people talking about it, the buzz created its own demand. Social pressure created the demand.

people are learning-machines looking for fuel

The other topic today resonated with a recent book I read on fun and games. Our brain is a learning machine. It looks for patterns and derives pleasure from finding patterns and exploiting them. This is the heart of games and the allure of mystery.

People want to learn and we are drawn to new things. We want to find new things to gossip about and to discover. New connections, new stories, new products. There is a certain "coolness" about being new, and cool people are driven to be the first ones to do the cool thing.

Companies that can tell a story and spin that tale as a mystery will benefit from this drive in all of us. If you can help your customers feel like they are discovering something for the first time, you are on your way to coolness.

Red Bull exploited this learning drive to a T. They seeded the market but constrained supply. It was hard to get Red Bull at first which made it exotic and rare and worthy of finding. They also used rumors, such as "Red Bull is banned in Europe", to take advantage of people's desire to gossip and find something new as well as the desire to take risks and be daring. "Banned in Europe? Give me that can! I will drink it!"

Yes, it was an interesting class. Tell a story that piques interest and get social pressure on your side and your product launch will be a hit. This is the essence of guerilla marketing and sound advice for all marketers.