Market Like a Wonka

Wish for a Wonka Bar

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it.
Anything you want to, do it.
Want to change the world?
There’s nothing to it.

“Pure Imagination”

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a timeless, scrumdidilyupmptious classic. It’s a tale of contrasts between wealth and poverty, vice and virtue, and cunning and innocence. It’s also a lesson in marketing leadership.

It begs the question:

How can I market like a Wonka?

Have Clarity of Purpose

Wonka, an eccentric recluse runs a company that might be compared to the Apple of the chocolate industry. Inventive, secretive and made paranoid by industrial espionage, Willy distrusts adults. His succession plan involves seeking out an incorruptible child to take the reins.

No fooling around. This is about leaving a legacy.

Build an Undeniable Value Prop

Five children from around the globe will be awarded an exclusive opportunity: to spend a day with Willy Wonka, touring his super-secret factory. A lifetime supply of Wonka goodies to follow. This is what Godin calls a Purple Cow. Secretly, Willy is holding an open interview.

Know Supply and Demand

Wonka’s ”golden ticket” strategy involves hiding a scarce good in his core product, which he makes available in abundance. Staggering the pace at which tickets are discovered, he builds up a demand frenzy. Each winner that comes forth provides evidence to the market that the tickets exist. Scarcity grows.

Make it Remarkable

This is where the chocolate meets the foil. A universally available product with a tiny chance to win an exclusive and rare good. Massive, controlled distribution. Each winner triggering a global media frenzy. 100% earned and viral by nature. Only Twitter could have added to the velocity of that news contagion. Bravo!

Drive Return on Inventiveness

Wonka sets up a private lab in which to choose his successor – the perfect steward for his business. Charlie’s cardinal virtues of integrity, interest in others’ welfare, hope, courage and an ability to suspend disbelief serve as a great foundation for a future inventor. Excellent qualities for a marketer too.

By all rights, Wonka was a marketing rock star. He created a remarkable “product”, executed an imaginative campaign, earned amazing media coverage, and met his objective.

Think Like a CEO

Create wealth. Fuel innovation. Grow the Team. Rinse and Repeat.

And that’s how you market like a Wonka.