Big Ass Marketers

In Lexington Kentucky, there's a company making fans that knows more about marketing than General Motors, Coca Cola and American Airlines, combined.

Recently profiled in Ad Age, Big Ass Fans is one of the fastest growing companies in the country.

What makes this such a great marketing company?

They listen to their customers. Originally called HVLS Fan Company, when they were out on sales calls to industrial customers, they kept hearing the same thing over and over, "Man, those are big ass fans." So they changed the name.

They created a 'Blue Ocean.' Originally found in factories, restaurants, churches and other commercial settings, they added a high degree of style to their fans and began selling them to the owners of high end custom homes for $3,000 each, more than ten times the cost of the ceiling fan in my screen porch.

They're disciplined. Big Ass Fans sell direct to the consumer only. Even though there are millions of homeowners across the country who install fans, they know their market and are not going to join the race to the bottom by competing with Hunter and Hampton Bay on the store shelves at Home Depot or Lowes.

They know the value of marketing. During the recession their sales, while still growing, had slowed below forecast. Rather than do what most companies did during the downturn and cut back, they added more money to the marketing budget and they are now reaping the rewards as the economy recovers.

They know it all starts with a superior product. The funny name, the controversy it creates, the buzz it generates would all be worthless if the product didn't deliver.

They're fearless. They've had the post office reject their mailers, the Blue Grass Regional Airport reject their ads, and some companies won't buy from them because of the name. But even more are aware of them because of it and they aren't about to cave on the basis of a few complaints by the perpetually offended.

As marketing role models go, you could do worse than follow Big Ass Fans.