One question: did you get your soap in the mail this week?
Friday, November 28, 2008
As far as marketing campaigns go, sending soap to prospective clients is just plain weird, or maybe a genius move, as I'm writing about it without anyone asking me.
I got a single bar of soap in the mail, and I still don't know why. Who sends soap in the mail? And why me? Do I smell (rhetorical question)? Should I assume that I have a potty mouth, since the directions on the box read APPLY VIGOROUSLY TO POTTY MOUTH? I'm sure I use the
F word during the day--after all, I'm only human--but how did they know? Whoever this "they" is.
It seems like a waste of good soap, because I can't use this soap. I will not use the soap that a total stranger sent me. Besides, I'm on a rigorous moisturizing program, thanks to Renee. The soap we use literally melts in your hands. Let's just say it is no man-in-the-mountain-manly soap: I smell like potpourri or fresh ripe mango on a daily basis. Note that I'm not saying I don't like or that I like it; I'm just saying that it has extra moisturizing properties: my face and hands are silky smooth. Of course, the soap is gone in 3 days, but that's a different story altogether.
For a marketing and customer acquisition campaign, the soap mailing is very out of the box thinking (see what I did there: image, sentence...they go together). I wish I could have been in the boardroom where the person who came up with the idea said, "Why don't we snail-mail soap to potential customers?" Was anyone surprised? If you were there, email me.
Which company is the soap from? I won't tell you, as I don't want to give free publicity here and the message didn't work: I'm not buying any of the products or services offered with the soap. And it's not what you would think, e.g., it's not Dove or Palmolive. The mailer of the soap has nothing to do with the cleaning industry. Next time, however, I'd recommend not sending me soap: it's too personal of a thing and it opens the company to trouble. For example, what if I use the soap and I have an allergic reaction?
Next time, try deodorant...or why not a pair of socks or a pair of underwear: undergarment would definitely say that you care enough and are not open to an allergy-reaction law suit.
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