Pete approached Sideways Marketing with a problem. He owned a billboard, but had a hard time finding customers to use the billboard. He ended up having to come up with his own billboards to try to solve the problem. Sideways Marketing’s founder, Louis Sideways, gladly took the case.
“What does your billboard say now?” Louis Sideways asked Pete.
“Rent this billboard. You read it,” Pete said.
“Don’t you think people will be mad that they read the billboard after reading it?” Sideways asked.
“I never thought about that,” Pete said. “What do you suggest?”
“Let’s just find you some customers,” Sideways said. “Who has rented it?”
“I’ve gotten a few festivals that came into town to advertise on the billboard. The local minor league baseball team likes to have it for a month or two in the spring to try to sell season tickets. There was this seafood place with great prices, but the deals were too good and they went out of business.”
“Have you ever had a lawyer?” Sideways asked.
“No. No lawyers,” Pete said. “Do professionals want billboards?”
“Ones with slogans do. Frank Knight is just the guy.”
“I don’t know Frank Knight,” Pete said.
“Well, he changes his slogan about every five minutes. Here are the marketing slogans he’s used over the past three weeks.”
Sideways handed a paper to Pete with Frank Knight’s slogans:
Your Lawyer in Shining Armor
A Knight on your Side
You’ve Been Lawyered by Frank Knight
Litigation is our Knight Specialization
Marco — Lawyer; Polo — Frank Knight
Let’s be Frank – You Need Knight
Need a Lawyer? How about Frank Knight?
“What do you mean he’s used all of these slogans in the past three weeks?” Pete asked.
Sideways pulled out pictures. “The slogans have appeared on buses, on social media, and in mailboxes. He just can’t decide on a slogan.”
“How does this help me?”
“You sell him the billboard and then you offer him a fee to change the slogan whenever he wants. You’ll never have to worry about a new customer. Just make it easy to change the slogan.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Frank said.
“Maybe you can even offer your slogan about reading,” Sideways suggested. “The sad thing is that he might even use it.”