My friend Craig bought an X-Box 360 last month. For those not familiar with what an X-Box is, its a video game console. Most of us old enough to remember, would compare it to a suped-up Atari. Well, if Atari were a Pinto, the X-Box 360 would be the Porsche. But this article isnt about mind-numbing video games, in fact, if youre a business owner looking for a competitive edge, you going to want to read this. Youre about to be educated by a video game console.

Video games have come a long way, in fact light years since I played them back in the 70s and 80s, and so has the amount of aggressive, intuitive marketing behind this multi-billion dollar industry.

Sure the graphics and the action has gotten better with these little arcades in a box, but what the video game companies have done in terms of marketing is unbelievably impressive. In fact, everything about this X-Box 360 is about marketing to kids. Take for example when you open the box, you receive offers for video game magazines, free video game demos, online music clubs and any other thing you can imagine a kid would be interested in. In exchange for discounts on products/services, the marketing companies ask the buyers to provide them with some information, this information will be used to help market other targeted products and services to the kids. Instead of throwing money into billboard hoping that by some random chance a buyer that has the money, and is looking to buy at that time these guys are targeting what are called warm leads who are very likely to be in the market for their products and services. Pretty smart, huh?

But the marketing doesnt stop there; the video game consoles set up is down right ingenious. Gone are the days where you just plunked a game cartridge in the Atari and just started playing. The X-Box 360 has a complete, extensive dashboard console, which allows kids to try and buy games on line with just a couple of button presses.

Think about this for a second! How many customers could you attract if by just pressing a couple of buttons on a remote control could order your products and services? Have you ever noticed that marketers are always talking about how fast, easy and convenient it is to buy and work with them? This isnt by accident smart businesses know that the harder it is to buy and work with them, the less sales theyll have (* I know there are exceptions).

Are you still not convinced? Check out the full array of what the X-Box 360 allows its customers to do, think about this in terms of your business how can your business capitalize on these ideas:

* Preview new games coming soon to stores. Yes, the video game industry now has movie trailers for video games.

* Spend credits to buy games instead of cash, or credit card. The parents can of course purchase credits, almost like an allowance for kids. The kids can then buy virtually whatever they want, whenever they want it.

* Download and try demo versions of newly released games. Of course the user can quickly purchase the rights to the full-version game with a couple of button presses.

* Listen to and download featured, hot up and coming music artists. This is cross promotion with other industries the customers are most likely to be interested in as well.

* Join chat rooms and special interests groups that focus on video games. Its like an online community that buzzes the latest and greatest video games. Customers

* Download vintage video games at a fraction of the price. For those of us old enough to remember Atari, you can download all of your favorites: Frogger, Pac Man, Joust and more. The cost for the games is about $5. This is an impulse buy for people that can be done in a matter of 2-3 button presses. Imagine if just 50,000 people purchase just one game, thats $250,000 of revenue for a video game back in the 80s!!!

Video games may still be an unproductive way to waste a Saturday, but the marketing behind these brain cell killers has gone high-tech, and could teach us all something. These are really marketing cash machines in a cleverly packaged box. From permission/infusion marketing to cross promotion, targeting warm leads and the ease at which customers can buy products the video game industry has marketing figured out.

In your own business, how can you capitalize on what youve read here?

* How can you make it easier to buy from your company?

* Are there warm leads out there that would be more effective to target than people off the street? How can you target these people?

* How could you take advantage of permission marketing by providing customers value in exchange for providing you with valuable information and permission to market to them?

* What products/services could you cross promote that your customers would probably be interested in? What businesses could you form a strategic alliance with in order to provide more and better products/services to your mutual customers?

If youd like to learn more about many of the concepts covered in this article, I would be happy to talk to you about your companys specific situation, and I highly recommend picking up a copy of Seth Godins, Permission Marketing.