East Coast discount retailer Daffy's is at it again. Making wow -- or in this case 60s Pucci-esque A-line dresses -- while the sun shines. Last week Daffy's announced in their blog a limited quantity, limited location, limited time selection of these of-the-moment dresses. But here's the beautiful thing that puts them in the category of what I would consider the modern marketer: they're storytelling. They're getting our attention not by carrying great dresses, but by doing three simple things very simply:

1 - finding the brand stories - leading with an of-the-moment trend
2 - editing those stories as a publisher would - planting a stake in the ground around that one story; owning that one trend; blowing it out editorially
3 - telling the stories in memorable ways - using social media...Facebook, Twitter (@shopdaffys), blogging...to align that trend with high fashion, though they themselves are a discount retailer, and making it available at limited destinations to drive buzz and gotta-have-it demand

It's an art, this storytelling. If done well, it's what will always move a customer to a loyalist and a loyalist to an evangelist. (As long as the story bears out, of course. In other words, as long as the same brand experience that is promoted in advertising and on the street is carried out in store and online and through product mix and quality, etc.)

Another mark of the modern marketer: Daffy's is getting our attention in fun, inventive ways without a big marketing spend. Where most small-ish retailers rely on tried-and-true (read: ho hum) promotional methods...circulars, direct mail, newspaper, email marketing, couponing, maybe a promotional cable TV buy if they're feeling very flush, Daffy's takes what can only be assumed to be that same small budget and gets our attention via more in-your-face guerilla tactics. Y'know, the stuff that gets the media tongues wagging (priceless, in the end).




The best example of this is when, a few months ago, they played what at first blush appeared to be a promotional spot in a movie theater. Okay, that's kind of cool. A movie theater spot, and one that was actually done excitingly well. But then the real excitement began. Live dancers suddenly jumped "off the screen" and into the audience, taking the whole movie house by storm. Check it out here. Again, they landed on a story (color, color, color!). (And though you won't see it now on their site, they did have everything on their homepage seamlessly tied into the story.)  But the true genius was in the art with which they told that story.

So what's your story?