Marketing Tip #15 From Brown & Martin, Inc.
A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Mannequin American
Marketing Tip
Look for ways to remind your customers that you don't take them for granted and that they are important to you. Do big things and little things to make them feel special. More than likely, your competitors aren't doing this.
Create appreciation and loyalty with a few well-placed words, a few more thank-you's, frequent communications, free tips and other simple gestures that cost little but deliver reams of value back to you.
What Are We Selling Here?
Pavé, the Luxury Liqueur from Amsterdam is described as an ultra premium, 60 proof clear fruit liqueur infused with a distinct blend of ripened citrus, tropical and passion fruits, hints of caffeine and delicate herbal notes. Distilled from organic fruits through genuine diamonds. It's said that Pavé is designed to be a standalone drink, though it can also be enjoyed with a splash of your favorite mixer. Too bad I'm not able to find any retail locations that sell it here in the U.S.
The website hasn't been updated in quite a while and the facebook page has some interesting photos, but not much more.
But the bottle is cool ...
San Francisco is at it Again
As long as we're on liquor ... from MTLB: San Francisco is proposing a Charge For Harm bill where the manufacturers of alcoholic beverages would pay for the misuse of their products. The city claims it costs $17 million annually for treatment, prevention, medical transport and hospitalization for alcohol related illness.
But where do you draw the line with product abuse? Should McDonald's reimburse hospitals for all the bypasses they perform? Should GM compensate the city when someone takes out a park bench? If the measure becomes law the affected industries will just pass the cost onto customers via price increases. So the targeted companies are not really harmed ... just us taxpaying consumers.
Vintage Ads
Vintage ads tell us a lot about the character, prejudices and lifestyles of the times. Take the ad below as an example.
In the 50's it was perfectly acceptable to depict two brothers in a drug store at Christmastime contemplating the purchase of a new Zippo lighter for dad. (And bringing their dog into the drug store.) "And you can tell your dad it always works." No worries about kids playing with fire or smokers setting bad examples or dangers of second hand smoke. Simpler times. Fewer rules. Fewer law suits. More tolerance. Less medical knowledge. More common sense.
But ads also reveal the stereotypes and prejudices of the times. Look at the next ad.
Old Fashioned Sexism
Apparently there were no women copy writers in the 1950's. If there were, they would have had to have the same prejudiced opinions as their male counterparts. The 1950's ad above for the Kenwood Chef would never fly today. But it's interesting that the wife appears to be drinking both a bloody Mary and a glass of wine.
Another Vintage Ad
This was just too good to pass up. The copy for this Listerine ad from 1946 starts with "Will the law ever require women who are careless about their breath to wear bells to warn others of their approach?" Are you kidding me?! I think she should have been more worried about that hairdo than her breath.
What if they would have dared infer that men may have halitosis? Would Listerine have gone out of business? What would men have to wear around their necks? A noose?
