I’m not sure what’s going on below, but I’m here for it.
I have zero experience with this company. You now know as much about them as I do.
And you probably had the same reaction… “wait, what the hell is this?”
When I first saw their branding, I thought the company has lost its mind.
Now I think it’s kind of brilliant.
In a sea of “Sell Me Your Park” postcard mailers, the weird Rhino guys stand out and likely get much higher response rates from mom & pop park owners.
A couple of large MHP operators used to send postcards with a picture of their family (we’re just like you!) to try and relate with “Pop”. Those were less jarring and perhaps disingenuous, but also memorable and effective.
Why does this work?
We’re all bombarded with thousands of stale corporate looking ads per day. Everyone is numb to it. It’s extremely hard to break through that noise if you don’t:
A) spend an insane amount of money to beat prospects over the head with your message
B) do, say or build something remarkable (i.e. something worth remarking about - case in point, here I am remarking about the silly Rhinos…aka it’s working)
That is the main takeaway from Seth Godin’s famous book on marketing:
It’s highly inefficient to be a boring company.
Unless you’re the only game in town, it pays to differentiate your product and marketing.
Otherwise you have to spend a ton of time explaining your value and fighting to win business. And this becomes near impossible if you can’t elicit customer attention.
Because if the product feels like a commodity you only land lazy, extremely price sensitive customers that don’t care and constantly churn. Not a great way to build a business.
Whereas branding that goes niche and tells you exactly who the product is for is both efficient and builds loyalty.
Like this guy:
This is not something I would do and I have no idea if it’s working. But I’m guessing this owner understands his customer.
Sure he’s alienated a giant swath of the marketplace with this messaging. But guess what, that segment was never going to buy from him.
However, the overlapping Venn diagram of MAGA Fans and RVs owners, who also - for some ungodly reason - want to camp in a dirt lot in the middle of nowhere Arizona, would LOVE to support this RV park.
That is vs. another RV park of similar quality, which from the looks of it, appears to be a bit wanting, but hey whatever floats these peoples’ boat.
In other words, I don’t have to get it if they do.
Obviously the “product” still needs to provide value and deliver on its promise.
But all things being equal, they’ll park their tenement on wheels in the middle of this Mad Max Hellscape and probably pay a higher lot rent for the pleasure.
Because the branding speaks to them.
Of course, some can take this concept a bit too far.
Being weird for weird's sake doesn’t work.
I don’t see how this mobile home truck monstrosity is helping State Farm sell more MH insurance. Sure, it gets your attention, but mostly for it’s stupidity.
Goofy doesn’t work either:
What is this??
(I’ve saved you the pain of having to watch this mobile home dealer ad, because I think you know where it’s going. Trust me it’s not pretty)
Honestly, I commend them for trying though.
Remarkable isn’t easy to pull off.
There’s a fine line between a Purple Cow and a Purple Nurple.
Rather, to succeed and not look stupid, the message and packaging needs to feel sincere.
Because a bit “off” combined with AUTHENTIC seems to work REALLY well.
Brutal Honesty
Contrast the above chaotic mobile home dealer ad to the video from the OG mobile home dealer, Robert Lee from Cullman Liquidation.
Robert Lee is the real deal.
He’s not going to bullshit you.
“He sells mobile homes. They come in two pieces.”
Hot damn, take my money!
I don’t know why, but this ad works so well. If you’re in Alabama and need a cheap, used mobile home (lucky you) you are 100% calling these guys.
BTW - His squad below looks exactly like the quintessential Southwest MHP property management + maintenance + infill team + home sales team.
This ad is BRUTALLY honest and breaks the frame. It doesn’t give a “you know what”, yet it’s oddly earnest.
Which is why it resonates.
They probably paid Robert’s nephew 20 bucks and a carton of Marlboro Reds to make this ad. And yet it’s been viewed millions of times and generated countless business.
Entertaining Promotion
This next video is more of a stretch, but you’ve made it this far so humor me for second.
The below is an outtake video from a 1988 Winnebago commercial.
It was supposed to be a corporate snoozefest ad yet turned into a vial YouTube video, viewed by millions.
If you haven’t seen this yet, drop everything (WARNING - Not for work, lots of foul language).
I don’t care who you are, that’s funny.
I cry laugh every time I watch it. I’ve probably watched that video 10 times over the years.
I know it’s not technically an advertisement, but I’ve seen EVERY SINGLE INCH of that Winnebago. I know ALL the features.
At this point I could sell the Super Storage Sun Cruiser myself.
Now, I’m not in the market for a dumpy 1988 RV, but what if I was!!
My point is imagine how much more effective your marketing and ads could be if they’re even REMOTELY interesting. 2x more interesting = 10x more engagement and message retention.
This is important because attention is becoming the new oil; it’s a scarce resource and businesses need to increase their odds of capturing it.
Boring or average is invisible.
Conclusion
Anyways, you don’t need to create hilarious, curse-laden outtake videos or try and make viral ads.
Attempting to go viral seems like a waste of time. It’s too random.
And if you try too hard, the output will feel fake and “thirsty” (as the two Gen Z readers of this newsletter would say), defeating the purpose.
But we can probably take lessons from the above ads when promoting things we care about.
Customers seem to crave interesting and authentic messaging that stops “the scroll”. Might be useful to sprinkle some of that into your marketing efforts.
Happy Trails,
MHP Weekly