2 pills doubled sales. I love marketing :-)
Small marketing ideas can make a big difference. I love stories about people who changed something very simple and got more sales from it. In this video from 2011, I tell three of my favourite stories and would love to hear yours.
Small marketing ideas that change what the customer does
I’d read the first story in an article about a woman in advertising. I couldn’t remember her name or all the details, but the point was to understand what consumers actually respond to.
In the story, an advert showed an effervescent tablet being dropped into a glass of water. To sell more, she suggested the next advert show two tablets instead of one. I recounted that it roughly doubled sales.
It’s a story I refer to in the video, not a sales figure I’ve verified myself. The example is about advertising’s influence on consumption.
A wider opening and a change in taste
The second story was about toothpaste. If you widen the tube’s opening, more toothpaste comes out even though the strip is still the same length. I described that as a distasteful way to increase consumption.
The third was about M&M’s. I talked about bowls with different levels of sweetness placed around offices. By seeing which bowls emptied first, you could investigate which taste people wanted to eat more of.
I didn’t remember every name, year or detail with certainty. What interested me was the simple changes and the thinking about product development.
Inspiration also requires thought
I also say in the video that some of the stories are immoral or unethical. You can be fascinated by the mechanism while being critical of what it does to the customer.
Do you have a story about a simple change in marketing or product development that made a difference? Then share it. I’d like us to inspire each other.
Here I tell my 3 favourite marketing stories, and I look forward to hearing yours.
Small marketing ideas start with understanding what people feel
I’d read an article about a woman in US advertising who’d worked with the psychology behind adverts. I couldn’t remember her name or confidently place the story in time, so those weren’t the details I wanted to dwell on.
What interested me was the idea of getting to what consumers really felt. What a customer says isn’t necessarily the whole explanation for why they buy. I mentioned glasses as an example: Perhaps buying them isn’t only about seeing better, but also looking better and feeling more attractive. I find that difference interesting.
In the article, she was asked about her biggest success. The story involved an American company with an effervescent tablet or something like that. I wasn’t sure of the brand or exactly what the pill was for. Their TV adverts showed a glass of water with one tablet dropped into it. It was already working well for them.
The same advert, just with two tablets
The company wanted to sell more. The suggestion was completely matter-of-fact: The next advert should be exactly like the old one. They should simply drop two tablets into the glass instead of one.
As I retold the story, it more or less doubled sales overnight. That was a result from the story I’d read, not something I’d measured myself. But the mechanism fascinated me: Show people putting one in, and some will put one in. Show two, and some will put two in.
I know that can be ripping off the consumer. My enthusiasm for the simple idea wasn’t a recommendation to take more pills. In the video, I even ended that thought by saying I hoped people hadn’t been poisoned. I just thought it was a striking story about how much what you show in an advert can influence what people do.
The toothpaste tube: More product in a strip of the same length
Another story was about selling more toothpaste. Children were told the strip should be about the length of a little fingernail so they didn’t get too much. But if the tube’s opening became wider, more toothpaste came out in the same length of strip.
That’s how I described someone increasing consumption. I wasn’t sure which company it involved. I called it completely distasteful. But viewed very coldly and cynically as a sales and marketing mechanism, it’s a very simple change that can make people use more without changing the message they receive.
M&M’s and the bowls in the offices
The third story was about M&M’s. As I’d heard it, they’d discovered people could feel a little sick after eating quite a lot of a bag. They wanted a taste sweet enough to be delicious as a treat but not so sweet that people quickly had enough.
The experiment was very practical. They put bowls with different degrees of sweetness around the offices and watched which emptied first. By observing what people actually ate, they could work towards a mixture people wanted to eat more of.
In my retelling, it led to a big increase in sales. I hadn’t verified the figures or all the details of the experiment. What interested me was the idea of investigating the product through what people did rather than only asking what they thought of it.
What have you changed yourself that made a difference?
I’m in love with marketing and that kind of thinking about product innovation. I know some of the stories are immoral and unethical. They can still make me think and inspire me to look at my own business.
This doesn’t require something nobody else can work out. It starts with someone thinking and asking one simple question about the usual way of doing things. I’d love to hear more stories like that: What have you done in marketing or product development that was incredibly simple and made a difference? Let’s inspire each other. I tell my own experiences of developing a business in Iværksætter til jeg dør.
At the end of the video, I said I was going skiing for a week. How many videos there’d be from there would depend on the weather. But we’d see each other again the following week at the latest. Take care!
Best wishes, Martin
Gode inspirerende historier – tak for dem.
God skiferie. Kh Trine
p.s. Hvor er håret og kinderne blevet af!