I love the entire flavor and content of this post. It reminds me of my early days in radio broadcasting. My little station played “beautiful music” and we had a whopping 8 employees in Canton, OH. One each month, our corporate office would send us a 2 hour produced show centered on one artist – Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee.

My marketing creation was to print up small, ticket-sized little flyers with the time and date of the show as if it was a live concert. Each employee was asked to hand out 10 per day for the month leading up to the “concert.” It was the only advertising we could afford. Then we made sure to advertise our stations USP during the broadcast.

After 12 months, we were the #1 station in Canton by a good margin.

When we handed the cards out, we would first ask if the person, for example, like the music of _______ . We would then give then a “free ticket” to the concert event.

So every contact was personal and the product presentation was relevant and relational. Thanks to a central product to promote, different promo material, and a lot of shoe leather, we got the job done.

We have a lot more promotional choices today, but the basics of a personal touch, a relevant product with a unique USP, imaginative promotion are all still important today. Thanks for the thought stimulating post.

Thank you for your kind comments about the post. Real world experience with a brand is so valuable because you get to test the BS you hear in an advertisement about service or features. I once spoke with the CEO of McDonalds, Jack M. Greenberg, who spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising. He believed that the cleanliness of the rest room and real in-store experiences were more important than any advertising. And, they actually spent more money on real in-store experience than ads.

The way that I find out about good products and companies is either by word of mouth or first-hand encounters. For example, I discovered Keurig machines from using them at work; and then became convinced to buy one via a special set up in Target. While you may not see so many door-to-door salesmen anymore, I must admit that I do like to see a product in action (and read reviews) before I take the leap and buy a product.

Great insights though — thank you for sharing!