Shel Horowitz's Monthly Frugal Marketing Tip, February, 2005

I live in a maple syrup state: Massachusetts. Vermont, just north of us, is known for its syrup--but in Massachusetts, a good deal of the production is for in-state consumption. As a local, small-scale agriculture/handcraft industry, the sector is made up of a lot of small farms. And nearly all of them use the same generic plastic jugs. They say Massachusetts Maple Syrup, and they have a picture of a maple tree and a place for the farmer to stamp contact info.

So as I was wondering what to write about this month, I happened to glance into my pantry and see a jug someone gave us. Someone had put it back facing rear, and my eye was caught by a large message: "Nearly empty? Need a gift? Call 1-800..."

Ah ha, I thought. Someone is being clever and using the space not only to provide an inoffensive marketing message, but also to differentiate in a crowded marketplace. I looked again and saw that the label, printed directly onto the plastic canister, had three pieces of original art: a sugarhouse among maple trees, a very attractive lattice-maple leaf design behind the large logo that says "Spring Farm," and a field with two male trees and some maple leaf closeups. Plus some information on making syrup, and some on proper storage. Very good.

But then the lessons turned negative: I thought it would be cool to show you the label, so I called to see if I could get a PDF to display on my website. And their 800 number has been hijacked by some weird operator that wants me to press a sequence of numbers and pay $4 for the privilege. So then I looked the farmers (whose names are on the package) up in the phone book, called and got an answering machine that cheerfully announced "memory full." Also not good, especially when syrup season is about to start.

At that point, I gave up. The jug doesn't list a website, and I didn't feel like looking for one on Google. Their chance for no-cost publicity to my readers was gone, and if I'd been a customer, I'd have probably just gone elsewhere.

So the ultimate message: if you take the time, trouble and expense to create a good pull-marketing method, make sure you're ready to receive the inquiries!

Thank you reading this back issue of Shel Horowitz's Monthly Frugal Marketing Tips, published every month since May, 1997; please click here to view the complete archives, grouped by subject. Shel is an internationally known copywriter and marketing consultant, author of Grassroots Marketing Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First and several other books, and creator of the Frugal Marketing web site. Please click here to contact Shel.