Maketing strategies that are distinctive,original and different can help you achieve success, even in today uncertain economic climate. The business success I managed to achieve was largely due to the unusual marketing strategies I developed.

My sales staff referred to these strategies are as our "secret marketing strategies". They can help you succeed in your business, the same way as they helped me.

Selling is becoming more and more difficult every day. Competition is cut-throat More and more people are competing for a share of a shrinking market.

HOW CAN YOU ACHIEVE BUSINESS SUCCESS IN THE PRESENT DIFFICULT ECONOMIC CONDITONS?

It's certainly not easy, but it definitely can be done.

There are three basic ways to handle the problem.

(1) To achieve business success you have to sell more aggressively than your competitors.

(2) Your marketing and sales skills must be superior. You have to learn to sell creatively.

(3) The third method is probably the most important of all and the one most business people ignore.

You have to use marketing strategies that are unusual and unique; secret market strategies that are quite different to the usual ways used by your competitors.

Instead of using the usual marketing strategies that everybody else uses, develop your own original, unique marketing strategies, that are distinctive, different and original.

When you use these unique, secret marketing strategies you will stand out from the crowd. Sales will soar and your business will grow.

Over the last few years we have experienced a period of economic boom. Customers were so eager to buy they needed no persuasion. Selling was so easy there was no need for sales staff to develop special sales skills. They were simply order takers.

But people have short memories. It wasn't always like this. We have been through periods of recession before. Some companies went under. But many companies not only survived, they thrived and prospered. These were the companies that made use of unusual secret marketing strategies, creative marketing strategies and creative selling methods.

I was involved in business for many years as the owner of retail furniture and appliance stores. During this period there were definite periods of economic downturn, perhaps not as bad as the present day, but selling was certainly not easy.

Not only did my company survive, we prospered and recorded record sales. We managed to achieve business success by using unusual marketing strategies. We used our own secret marketing strategies that made us distinctly different to our competitors.

Let me give you a brief example of one of the promotional methods we used to attract customers. It was an example of how we used basic principles of showmanship.

We once used a very successful promotional strategy to promote a Japanese -made knitting machine for which we had been appointed the agents. It was a high quality, expensive item and we went to some lengths to advertise our promotion.

The demonstration of this machine took place at our business premises. The demonstrator was an attractive young Japanese lady, dressed in a magnificent, very ornate kimono. Her appearance was most unusual and very striking.

Although the Japanese lady spoke no English, this added to the exotic flavor of the demonstration. What impressed the customers we had invited to attend the demonstration,was the skill with which she was able to demonstrate what the machine was capable of doing.

The promotion was very successful and sales of these machines exceed ed our most optimistic expectations.

It is clear that the reason our promotion was so successful was because we used a marketing strategy that was different. The demonstration was different to anything people had seen before.

First of all, we made use of showmanship by mailing personal letters of an unusual design to a large group of customers we considered would be interested in buying a knitting machine of this type.

The letters included a personal invitation designed to represent an elaborate Japanese fan.

We also used a number of teaser advertisements in the press to announce the arrival of this exotic young lady.

We took advantage of our customer's curiosity to see someone who was obviously very different. We also made a point of pre-qualifying the potential customers we invited to the demonstration.

Although there was nothing strikingly different or spectacular about this marketing strategy, it worked because it had a distinct element of originality. It was an example of creative thinking.

In order to be original you have to learn to start thinking creatively.

In spite of the difficult economic conditions we are going through at the moment, it is still possible to achieve business success. But you have to start to thinking creatively.

Creativity is the secret of success in every business. Use your creative imagination to develop original marketing strategies that are different to those used by others. Devise unusual selling strategies. It's not as difficult to achieve business success as some believe. It can certainly be achieved - even in today's climate.