I was presented with a very powerful marketing concept for small companies the other day. It’s not a new fangled phenomenon, or something that will cost you a lot of money, or even a tactic that requires anything more than common sense. I want to term this concept “attitudinal marketing” but I suspect this already refers to some form of market segmentation, f*ck it, I’m calling it attitudinal marketing anyway.

So first of all let me set the scene. Some friends and I were eating out a great restaurant in East London called Kaya House (check out a review here), enjoying the food and the hospitality the host and his wife offered.

After dinner we started to chat with the restaurant owner, a great guy called Ambrose, who was really interested to get to know us as new customers. It seems from the countless reviews I’ve since read about this place that he remembers all of his customers by name - quite a feat - and he gets to know their favourite dishes, what they do for a living and probably much much more.

Interestingly he started to tell us about some of the businesses his customers were running. Everything from limo hire to travel agents and hotel owners in Malaysia. Not a hard sell, just introducing us to them as part of our conversation.

It turned really interesting when our friend mentioned she was running a cake business. Ambrose took an immediate interest and started to take down her details to pass on to his clients. The cost of this, nothing, Ambrose’s sterling attitude was that if he could help out another small business that was enough for him. Of course he’s hoping that what goes around comes around as the old saying goes.

It’s Ambrose’s attitude that I just have to admire. He works hard to make his business successful and at the same time pass on some of that success to other small businesses. So this is what I want to call “Attitudinal Marketing” - the deliberate act of spreading business opportunities purely with the interest of furthering the success of other businesses”. Or perhaps I should call it Ambrose Marketing?

So with this in mind and without further ado, here’s a short plug for my mates cake making business. If you are in the UK, more specifically the South East and need a cake for a special occasion, perhaps a wedding, then check out Sam Morris Cakes. Sam’s cakes are a delight and she is absolutely lovely to boot!!

http://www.sammorriscakes.co.uk

OK with the free plug out of the way. Have a think about whether you could engage in some attitudinal marketing. Ambrose has a notebook to store information and he displays adverts for free in his restaurant window. What could you do? If you make a plan to help just one small business each month, imagine the impact you could have.