How can you take a basic product and add pizzazz to your marketing? How can you add buzz to your simple product and elevate yourself above the competition and begin to build a brand from such efforts? There are ways to do this of course and no it is not easy, it takes a little strategic thinking, some luck and some marketing creativity.

For instance lets say your company sells ice. Recently while traveling in the Northeast after taking the Ferry back from Nova Scotia to Maine I found myself in about the worst weather I had ever experienced in that region. It was hot and thunderstorms with wind and this was the third week of raining, it was flooding everywhere. My freezer in my motor home could not keep up making ice for my Ice Tea and drinks. So, I stopped in a Wal-Mart to buy ice.

Ice was $1.25 and I thought okay, no big deal. But then I looked at the bag and it said Premium Ice. You see, I do not need premium ice; I just want some frozen water you know what I mean? Nevertheless, I looked at the ice cubes, they were smaller than normal, which is nice, because I can eat them as I drink, remember the weather was mega hot and humidity was 100%, as it was raining.

There was nothing Premium about this frozen water except it was more expensive than at most Wal-Marts. Premium Price I thought and had a laugh over it. No harm, no foul really. Then after pouring the ice I noticed that the other end was a zip lock bag? Cool, I thought, so I tied off the other end used the zip lock until it was used up.

Ice is frozen water and lets face it; it does not get any simpler than that in the way of products. By changing the bag, they gave me more value as a customer and really that is a Premium worthy of the extra $ .25 for the ice, and yet that bag difference did not cost them $ .25 so they made additional profit and I am a happy camper in the motor home. Consider all this in 2006.