Better, Not Cheaper: Red Velvet Events

In a previous post, called Be Better, Not Cheaper , I talked about how important it is to differentiate elements of your offering other than just your price. Here’s a great example of executing that strategy from Austin and San Antonio-based Red Velvet Events. The big value drivers for her clients are increasing sales results on the positive side, and minimizing risk and spend on the negative side. Red Velvet Events owner Cindy Lo prides herself on innovative events, wrapped in social media for maximum impact, with an experienced team to handle the details. This allows her to command something of a premium in a cut-throat market. So what did Lo do to celebrate Red Velvet Events’ 8 year anniversary? Expensive print ad? Fancy dinner? AdWords campaign? Nope. Cupcakes.

Lo handed out 1,000 red velvet cupcakes in one day at 8 locations– Red Velvet Events’ headquarters and the offices of existing clients. This celebration, backed by Twitter and Facebook campaigns, highlights RVE’s creative style. It also shows existing customers that they’re special, and probably led to more worth-of-mouth advertising than a traditional business development campaign. Plus, Lo garnered press coverage in the Austin Business Journal (and all over Twitter). Perhaps best of all, being different is fun. “We go all-out for our clients on projects– this was a great way for us to go all-out to show appreciation for them and do something fun at the same time,” said Lo.

What can you do that’s different, that’s better, rather than just following the traditional path? What will you have to offer, other than price, when the customer is making a buying decision?