You Bought A ‘Duck’ – Now What?

Contributed by Derek Champagne

In my new book, Don’t Buy a Duck, I recount how as a young man I combined my funds with my brother in order to purchase a duck from a street-side house sale. What seemed like a simply amazing deal at the time (a duck for only $10) quickly turned into a nightmare of feathers and one sharp duck bill  in the backseat of my parent’s car.  My entire investment (and that of my brother’s) went literally out the window and into our neighbor’s pond – and I learned a valuable lesson about making decisions based on what seemed cool or what seemed like a good deal, without thinking through the ramifications of my decision.

I love using this story to explain to clients how some marketing decisions are ducks – maybe you’ve made decisions like this too? You’ve jumped into a new marketing strategy or you made a large purchase because it seemed like a good deal or a cool new idea, but on further reflection it doesn’t really work for your brand or your company. And now you’re stuck with a duck that you don’t want, you don’t need and that is most likely going to make a mess of your backseat. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

What can you do if you’ve already purchased a duck? Here are a few suggestions:

• Bring the duck back.

Now’s not the time to worry about your duck-purchasing pride, go back and see if you can return your duck and get a refund.  Depending on whether or not your duck came with a full contract and/or refund policy, many states protect a consumer or business from buyer’s remorse with a three day “get out of duck jail free” card for large purchases.

• Barter the Duck.

If you’ve already missed the duck return window, or if your duck seller isn’t the forgiving type, it’s time to get creative. You still don’t need or want a duck, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people in your circle who don’t only want a duck but could really use a duck right now.  Reach out to your circle or network and offer to barter your duck – either reselling the duck or exchanging it for something of equal value that your new best friend can offer you.

•  Eat Duck.

If you can’t find anyone that will take the duck off your hands, what you want to do is search for anyway that you can make a return on the investment you made.  Let’s pretend that, for the case of this example, your duck is a highly qualified Facebook advertising professional that would do great things for your business – except you don’t use Facebook as one of your marketing vehicles (and for good reason).  Keeping in mind the rest of your integrated marketing plan, talk to your duck about the possibility of moving into a fresh market or doing new market research on Facebook – something that will amplify the marketing work you are already doing. You might not be receiving the full value of what you’ve already purchased, but sometimes you have to eat a little duck.

Not sure if you purchased a duck? The good news is  Don’t Buy a Duck is launching in approximately 2 weeks.  To learn more about what qualifies as a ‘duck’ purchase and more importantly how you can avoid such decisions about your marketing in the future, visit:www.DontBuyADuck.com for Early Bird access and also receive a bonus that will help kick off your marketing plan for 2016.