Successful Marketing Strategies Examples

The most successful marketing campaigns often have a special something that sticks in your mind and keeps bringing you back. Sometimes it is a catchy slogan, other times it is an amazing offer and then there are cases where it’s just a matter of right time, right place.

Marketers often use these examples as inspiration to guide their own efforts. After all, what’s proven to work in the past is likely to work again in the future. You can learn a lot from the following marketing examples and apply these lessons to your own strategy!

Example 1: Airbnb/Uber — A New Way To Do Something Routine

Businesses like Airbnb and Uber were able to turn major industries on their heads by finding an entirely different way to approach the same problem. Uber, for example, found a way to arrange transportation better than traditional taxi companies. Airbnb disrupted the hotel and hospitality industry in a similar fashion.

Finding a new solution to an old problem is a marketing strategy in itself. When you’re able to introduce an entirely new answer that is different from what the industry has known, your strategy centers around showing that distinction to the marketplace.

Example #2: Spotify — A Unique User Experience

Spotify didn’t disrupt the music streaming space. However, there is a reason that Spotify is globally recognized and other music streaming services are not. Spotify offered a unique user experience and features that other platforms do not offer.

They are using cross marketing to boost the brand awareness.

Spotify realized that people didn’t want to just listen to music, they also wanted to discover new artists and songs. Their service made it easy to create and share playlists with friends, while also suggesting new artists and genres to explore. This unique user experience was the center of their marketing messages and attracted a broader audience.

Example #3: GoPro — Empower Your Audience

GoPro found a recipe for marketing success when they realized that their customers were shooting awesome content with their product. A significant portion of GoPro’s marketing content is user-generated. Not only does this save GoPro time in creating their own content, but it also creates an engaging experience for audiences. It creates a community of people sharing their GoPro content and communicating with one another.

Example #4: McDonalds/Burger King — Leverage The Competition

McDonalds and Burger King are massive rivals in the fast food space. Over the years, the two have traded some bold and hilarious marketing messages. Burger King, for example, launched an entire marketing campaign clowning on the Ronald McDonald character. Years later, they launched a marketing campaign showing how their signature Whopper outsized McDonalds’ Big Mac.

The lesson? Poking fun at your competitors can be an effective marketing strategy that generates a lot of buzz! Just remember that it’s all in good fun if they take a shot back at you.

Example #5: H&M — Subtlety Can Be A Win

Clothing retailer H&M is known for their exceptional video marketing. In 2016, they launched an amazing video around the holiday season. The video was directed by Wes Anderson and featured Adrian Brody, but it was the story itself that caught attention.

Moreover, it was H&M’s ability to put the Christmas spirit at the forefront of the video, while their products provided the backdrop. There’s very little brand mention until the very end of the video.  It creates a winning experience because people can enjoy the story and see H&M’s winter products, but they don’t feel like they are being bombarded with clothing ads.

Example #6: Mint — Quality Always Trumps

Mint was a new startup in the crowded personal finance space. To gain attention early on, Mint focused on creating content — a normal move for startups. The difference was that Mint put an extreme emphasis on quality and production. By producing high-quality infographics and articles, Mint quickly attracted attention and built a following. Quality is almost always a component of winning marketing strategies.

Example #7: Dollar Shave Club — Have Fun; Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

Dollar Shave Club is a great example of a company with an exceptional marketing strategy. Everything they put out is full of jokes, which practically guarantees engagement. And, they are able to effortlessly combine that humor with great offers. Even their initial launch video was entitled: “Our Blades are F**King Great.”

This company knows their audience and how to make them laugh. It’s a great example of a company that really has fun with their marketing. When people see you’re having fun, they are more inclined to laugh along.

Example #8: Heineken — Get Political, Carefully

Political issues often create polarized audiences, which can be extremely damaging in marketing. You don’t want to divide your audiences, you want to bring them together! That’s exactly what Heinken accomplished with its Open Your World campaign where people with opposite viewpoints got together and had the option of sitting down for a beer (Heineken, of course) and discussing their differences, or walking away.

Not only did the ad bridge the political divide, but it did so where other major brands had failed (looking at you, Pepsi).

Example #9: Coca-Cola/Nike — People Care About Good Values

Coca-Cola and Nike are two of the most recognized brands in the world. But, that doesn’t replace the need for great marketing! One strategy that these two companies deploy is focusing on the global community and showcasing their impact on the world.

As people become more aware of the issues facing other parts of the world, they are increasingly aware of what large corporations do to remedy these problems. Coca-Cola and Nike both effectively market their good values and contributions to improve the world.

Example #10: Sephora — Highlighting What Makes You Special

Many companies and brands offer a loyalty program to help customers save money and encourage repeat business. Very few of those businesses have a loyalty program that even comes close to beating Sephora’s Beauty Insider benefits program.

The program is so exceptional that Sephora has dedicated entire marketing campaigns to explaining the system and showcasing what rewards customers can earn. It’s something that you can’t get from another brand and Sephora knows it!

Conclusions

The Internet is littered with other examples of effective campaigns that produced great results for businesses. As a marketer, it’s important to pay attention to the marketing strategies that other companies are putting out there. Specifically, think about what components work, which don’t and how you can use these lessons to improve your own tactics.