Word "Marketing" is so over and miss used that barely anyone knows what it actually means.

Marketing is not just throwing money in advertising campaign, it is innovation and playing with consumer psychology and lots of creativity and thinking outside of the box.

I want to share a few stories can demonstrate you the 'mechanism' of success. 

And it is far what you think now, I bet...

I start with my favourite story about founder of Woolworth giant chain companies. 

I am sure you can relate! 

I totally can! I am not a sales person even for a second and for me it was always hard and super awkward try to"make sales". Woolworth founder found his approach and innovated the whole trade industry...I also have found my own approach where I feel comfortable now too. 

I don't make sales, I don't sell products or services, I solve specific problems and try to always have a plan with understandable 'ingredients' and projected outcome.

So let's go. Enjoy!

The founder of the largest Woolworth chain is the inventor of now commonly known price tags and supermarkets, back then found the right insight that allowed him to earn millions of dollars. 

A shy and stuttering young man from the village at the age of 21 got a job as a seller assistant in a small shop. 

At that time, the prices in stores were never written. Each time for each potential buyer the seller eye-balled and guessed its financial well-being and only then gave his price..adjusted by the looks of the buyer. The buyer either started to bargain to lower the price or simply walked away. 

Poor Frank was so super afraid to invite buyers, praise goods, and bargain with them. 

He was SO afraid of such selling process and interacting with clients that one time he even fainted right during his shift.

As a punishment, the store owner left him to trade on his own all by himself for the whole day, threatening that if the proceeds were less than the usual daily, he would fire him. Before opening the store, Frank attached a paper with the lowest possible price (the prototype of the modern price tag) to all goods. He laid out all the stale goods dumped in the warehouse on a huge table, attaching to it a plate with the inscription "Everything is five cents." He set a table near the window so that both the goods and the sign were visible from the street. And shaking with fear, he began to wait for buyers, hiding behind the counter. All the goods were sold out in a few hours, and the revenue for the day was equal to weekly. Buyers, holding the goods in their hands and seeing the price written on it, without bargaining gave money. Frank left the owner, borrowed money and opened his store. In 1919, Wolworth's empire consisted of a thousand stores, and Frank's personal fortune was approximately 65 million.

Tefal has long believed that the main motive for buying their Teflon-coated pans is the fact that cooking process did not require a single drop of oil.

However, later turned out that the main trigger in peoples mind was the fact that their pans with such coating are very easy to wash, because food does not burn to the surface and there is no need for endless soaking them in water and scrub.

After realizing it Tefal have changed the content of the advertising campaign, which significantly increased its effectiveness, i.e. sales!

The manufacturer of the most famous bikes in the world has been holding the first place in the number of “branded” tattoos for more than a dozen years.

It all started with the fact that Harley announced impressive discounts on bikes for those who come to buy a bike with their tattoo.

After 1960s Alka-Seltzer in their advertisement started throwing not one, as before, but two pills of their magical product into a glass of water, which lead to exactly double the sales.

Btw such tricky advertising move was proposed by Tinker & Partners agency.

There is a similar story about a brilliant marketer, who was the first to think of the instructions for using shampoo...it should be applied to hair and washed off twice, which led to double increase in sales. 

Well, remember the commercials of chewing gums in the pads. 

How many of them do the advertising heroes put in their mouths? That's it.

Mezcal is a traditional Mexican alcohol produced just like tequila in Mexico from agave.

Technically speaking, tequila is also mezcal, but of a different kind and, frankly speaking, with a much better taste.

Mezcal became popular outside of Mexico only thanks to the dead caterpillar stuck in the bottle and floating at the bottom.

The poor dead caterpillar does not affect the taste of mezcal in any way; it is simply a well-thought-through advertising move. 

Exotic! 

Europeans and Americans drink mezcal pretty vigorously and then excited to share the pieces of drunk caterpillar with everyone - that is now a kind of tradition.

And Mexicans giggle at how smart they are and how they managed to manifest and promote their alcohol to the global market.

From the history of Timberland.

In the early 1980s, Timberland had hard times. 

they produced high-quality shoes, with the price that was lower than the industry leader brand Topsiders. 

It seemed that a great product with a low affordable price should worked for them, but things were going bad. 

Then, Timberland made a very simple decision: they raised their prices so substantially that started to exceed the prices offered by Topsiders.

Sales skyrocketed!

This confirms the reliability of David Ogilvy’s statement that The higher the price, the more desirable the product becomes in the eyes of the buyer.

The same technique of artificially inflated demand has been used by top luxury brands for decades and proven to be very effective.

I hope this was inspiring! 💜