An Introduction to Trojan Horse Marketing
July 2nd, 2008 by Kenneth Read more about Branding and PositioningThe Tale of a Fortified City
Paris, a Trojan Prince, kidnapped Helen of Troy who was reputed to be the most beautiful woman who ever lived. When her husband discovered that she was missing, all of Greece took part in the ensuing war. They sieged the huge city of Troy for years, but they couldn’t figure out how to get inside the gates.
We all know necessity is the mother of all invention. After 10 fruitless years, they came up with the Trojan Horse. It was a big wooden horse on wheels, big enough for a bunch of Greek soldiers to hide inside. They pretended to retreat and sail home, acting like they had given up and left.
When the people of Troy opened their city gates and the found the horse, they didn’t know what it was. The Greeks planted a spy to trick them into believing it was a gift, so they brought it in. It was so big that it couldn’t go through the gate so they tore down a piece of the city wall to get it in.
During the night after everyone had fallen asleep, the Greek soldiers came out of the Trojan horse, killed the guards on the walls, and signaled to the other Greeks to come attack Troy. The Greeks could get in now because the walls were torn down. Troy was conquered and the war was won.
How does the Trojan horse apply to marketing?
When the Trojans saw the a huge wooden horse, they brought it in. Why? Because they perceived it as a gift of some value. They took it inside. The Greeks used the Trojan horse to win over the Trojans. I’m not advocating violence, but I am pointing out the genius behind the idea of using the ‘gift’ as a way to get to your prospect’s wallet.
An Introduction to Trojan Horse Marketing
Let me introduce you to a marketing principle called Trojan Horse Marketing. The reality is, when people see a marketing message or a promotion, their walls go up further.
Trojan Horse Marketing is defined as getting your promo message across, past the prospects’ barriers which have been erected to block out those promotional messages to begin with.
Trojan horse marketing works in the real world. Why? Because even if your prospect has strong walls and fortresses, when they see your Trojan horse, they see it as a gift from heaven, and they bring that gift inside the barriers. That’s what Trojan Horse Marketing is about.
It’s about how to position your marketing as a Trojan horse; as a gift; as a welcome distraction from life; as an answer from heaven.
Ask yourself, “Am I a Trojan horse in my marketing?†Down the line, I’ll talk more about how to express Trojan Horse Marketing — in email, in blogs, in different forms of promotions.
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About the Author
Kenneth Yu is a tormented artist, but he was determined not to be a starving one. This is the primary reason why this D&AD award-winning advertising creative has plunged into the world of Internet entrepreneurship, and the rest -- as they say -- is history.
Straddling both the creative and business realm, Kenneth combines bullet-fast ideation and his vast experience working with the big brands to alchemize marketing gold as the Head Copywriter and Marketing Strategist in MindValley.
He shares more out-of-the-box marketing and copywriting tips (plus cool irreverent stuff) on his Twitter
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Vishen Lakhiani
Great Post. We see being Trojan Horse almost every day now, but just learnt the background.It would perhaps be more appropriate if the same tactics is used against cannibalization. Becase there someone would be rescuing it previously held customer like the Troy did. Amazing concept anyway.
Yeah love the link to a great battle fought and one with a moments genius. Imagine the initial reaction to building a dam big horse as a military move! Love it that certainly is not even thinking outside the box that tears the walls down. Same as marketing imagine a couple of years ago being told to give some of your best stuff away!
Rich
Ken:
Very interesting an original strategy. Froma business strad point this how I see it.
I interpret the Trojan Horse Effect as the means of working effectively “from the inside » out”.
In other words, work hard to penetrate the market, that’s the tough part, once you are there, deploy your positive actions across the market, making sure that your team and customers have bought into it, then capitalize these actions and , gain market leadership.
Pls let me know your thoughts and if you concur with my statements.
Tks, Miguel