Happy Friday, and welcome back to Marketing Qualified. Let’s jump right into today’s topics!

• Are “third places” the newest marketing trend? An interesting way brands are starting to spend their marketing dollars.

• The “objection smasher.” Sometimes, the best way to manage objections is to get out in front of them.

📍 Are “third places” the newest marketing trend?

Imagine this: you’re planning a coffee catch-up with a friend. They send you the address of a new place that just opened. You drive over. As you pull up, you expect to see a Starbucks or maybe the latest cool hipster joint, but instead, you see a cafe run by a bank.

It’s a Capital One Cafe, a nationwide chain from Capital One that’s grown to 56 locations.

But why is Capital One building a coffee empire?

The same reason Bumble created their Bumble Brews restaurant in 2021 to host mixers and events. Or why the beverage company Mud/Wtr opened a mindfulness studio and open workspace in Santa Monica last month.

It’s a marketing play.

People need “third places.”

In the last few years, chatter about “third places” has been increasing. Third places are public spaces that aren’t work or home where people can gather and feel a sense of community.

Scientists and psychologists say that having third places is key to happiness.

Dr. Narae Lee has conducted extensive research on third places. She says they are “closely tied to social wellbeing” because we are living in an “increasingly lonely society. It’s crucial for people to escape from a sense of loneliness and build a sense of community.”

Some even believe that increasing the number of third places might be a crucial part of solving “the loneliness epidemic” currently facing society.

Using “third places” to build brand awareness.

So why are companies like Capital One and Mud/Wtr funneling their marketing dollars into creating third places? According to the companies, it’s not to drive pipeline or increase revenue. Instead, they’re making a physical statement about their brand values and increasing awareness.

Capital One’s head of retail bank channels and operations, Jennifer Windbeck, said, “We are not looking to sell accounts through the cafes. We are looking at the cafes as ways of expanding the public’s exposure to Capital One.”

Cafe employees don’t have sales goals and aren’t trained to approach guests with banking offers. Instead, the success of a cafe is measured by its traffic, customer satisfaction, and if it correlates to a lift in new accounts opened in that neighborhood.

Going forward.

It will be interesting to follow this trend and see if other brands also start creating third places.

Although the examples we found seem to be concentrated in B2C, we think there is a particular opportunity here for B2B brands. With the rise of remote and hybrid work, employees have gotten more freedom and flexibility. But friction has also been created around maintaining company culture and encouraging collaboration when coworkers are not physically together.

Perhaps there is an opportunity for certain B2B brands to create third places that provide convenient meeting locations or team-building activities.

📰 In the news this week.

😆  How to incorporate humor into your marketing.

✅  Do this for non-purchase conversions.

📈  Reddit’s tips for businesses looking to advertise on the platform.

📺  Netflix is turning into cable TV.

💧 What’s the big deal with Stanley cups?

🥊 The “objection smasher.”

Looking for a way to change up your product marketing? Give this tactic a try.

It’s called the “objection smasher.”

Dave Gerhardt coined the term in a recent LinkedIn post. It’s a public-facing landing page that lists out the top reasons customers don’t buy from you or why they churn. The key is to be brutally honest.

You might be asking, “Why would I ever do that?!” Let us explain.

You know that your prospects are out in the market sifting through at least 3-5 other vendors and dozens of features. Everyone will be talking about how amazing and life-changing their product is.

But here’s the problem: the prospect knows they’re being sold to. So, they take everything with a grain of salt.

Would you trust the used car salesman who tells you there is and never has been anything wrong with the car you’re looking at? Probably not! You’d know there are likely certain issues lurking under the surface. You just don’t know what they are or how severe.

Why it works.

The reason the objection smasher can work is because it lets you flip the script. By being honest, you earn credibility and trust with your audience.

Be upfront about the reasons you might not be a good fit. Let people self-select out.

That way, whoever is left at the end trusts you and understands exactly what to expect from working with you.

Plus, you just saved your sales team hours of time speaking with prospects they’ll ultimately realize are not a good fit.

It’s better to have a chance to explain your POV upfront in your own words vs. letting the prospect wonder and draw their own conclusions. This allows you to control the narrative.

If it feels too daunting to start off with an objection smasher landing page, then start smaller. Create a blog post or social media post instead.

😂 Marketing meme of the week.

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