Launching a sales offer? Don’t do it if it isn’t this effective!
The Problem That Is
It was one of those terrible days of the global economic downturn. Like many other businesses, a little insect repellent manufacturing company in Milwaukee, US, was battling plummeting sales and falling profits.
The firm had tried every trick in the book to gain more customers-free giveaways, gift coupons, all sorts of bribes to the customers had failed.
But then, in an ingenious stroke of marketing wizardry, the company launched an advertising campaign that catapulted the little firm out of obscurity and into the hearts and minds of its customers.
The Idea That Worked
The company caught five cockroaches and imprinted their belly with a bar-code. These cockroaches were then released into the town’s sewers. The next day, an ad appeared in the newspapers: catch the cockroaches bearing the bar code and win a reward of $50,000!
The challenge was weird, funny and at the same time intriguing.
withing hours, the company’s insect repellent flew off the shelves as people grabbed the spray bottles and dived into the sewers in search of the coveted cockroaches. Homemakers became more alert, office-goers started carrying the spray to office in case the ‘wanted’ cockroaches were found lurking in office loos.
The campaign did not just earn revenue. It made the company famous! The firm gained loyal customers. That was something the freebies and gifts had failed to achieve.
Why? It’s because the way our mind works.
The human mind values the sense of achievement.
It values the excitement it gets when something is achieved after a struggle.
Because of this inbuilt mechanism, we value something small achieved after a struggle more than something big given to us for free.
If you offer the customers freebies, they will take the reward and forget you when they see the next guy offering bigger and better reward.
But if you give them a challenge, a contest worth participating, you will earn a place in their memory and their heart.
Throw challenges rather than gifts towards your customers and then watch their minds charge up with excitement, memories and loyalty at the mere mention of your company’s name.
What’s Your Sales & Promotion Strategy?
Let Us Know at:
vrushank@yuktee.com
pranav@yuktee.com
