Have You Found Your Bark? The Man Registry Has!
Woof! Arf! Yip!
I am not ashamed to admit that I am a Chihuahua freak. We have two Chihuahuas and I love them both. I loved the movie “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” especially the part where Chloe, the spoiled little rich-girl Chihuahua, gets lost in Mexico and ends up with a group of native Chihuahua dogs. These native dogs teach little Chloe, who can’t even yip to save her life, to find her bark. They teach her to express herself powerfully and in a way that is uniquely Chloe.
I love that part of the movie. I also know that “finding your bark” is one thing that many entrepreneurs and small business owners haven’t yet done. Your “bark” is your unique voice. It’s the way you express yourself and promote your business that makes you stand out from the crowd. In a time when people’s buying loyalty is at an all-time low, having a unique bark can help your small business not only retain its current customers but attract new ones.
The Man Registry
I recently stumbled onto a great website called The Man Registry. This website is devoted to grooms and helps them figure out what they need to do for a wedding. Truth be told, the website is for “stupid grooms,” a category into which many men fall. Unlike giddy brides, most grooms don’t get all excited about writing their vows, picking out items for the gift registry, or (heaven forbid!) doing the seating arrangements.
Nevertheless, grooms are required to participate in wedding planning in some form or fashion, and The Man Registry helps them do it with style and panache (and lots of humor). Here are just a few of the unique features offered on the site:
- Ask the Experts: Smart Answers for Dumb Grooms
- Groom 101: Stand Out
- How to Write Your Vows: A Game Plan
- Wedding Pranks: Get the Groom
- Wedding Night Sex: Hot or Hype?
The Man Registry also offers the chance to win a jumbo 64 oz. flask when you create a registry on the site. Finally, the site has a blog where big shots in the wedding industry regularly post tips and trends that grooms will want to know about. The Man Registry clearly has found its unique “bark” in the field of wedding planning.
How Can You Find Your Bark?
How can you find your bark? There are all kinds of avenues. The Man Registry obviously uses humor to attract people, and then follows up with truly practical and useful information for dumb grooms. Sixty-five percent of their promotional budget is pitched toward men but the remainder is aimed at women who want their grooms to be halfway intelligent. So humor is one way to have a unique bark. Here are some other ideas:
- telling stories and offering real case studies
- making use of sarcasm and ridicule (check out Despair, Inc.)
- offering jokes and humorous videos
- giving out tips list (knowledge in bite-sized chunks)
- using a theme (one site uses all Jedi-terminology to sell consulting services)
- posting innovative photos and graphics (one site uses cat postcards)
Questions for Small Business Owners Who Want to Find Their Bark
One way to discover your bark is to ask yourself, “What is the base premise of my business?” For The Man Registry, the base premise is that grooms are not the most intelligent wedding participants. The humor for the site flows from that base premise.
What’s the base assumption for your business? What important problem does your business solve? What questions do your services answer?
Now can you find your bark?
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Photo credit: Chihuahua_02
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