Advantages to Storytelling

Two nice stories - short and sweet but well worth re-telling - from the Marketing Society Annual Members Conference, 2010.  

Seeing is believing! 

James Averdieck, formerly of Proctor and Gamble, prevaricated for a long time before he started a company to make the sort of chocolate pudding he only ever found in Europe.   Finally, spurred on by family and friends, he made the leap.  He left P&G.  He perfected the product and then briefed a design agency to come up with the packaging for him.

At his second meeting with the design agency they told him that they had bad news.  During their research for the packaging they’d discovered a chocolate pudding, manufactured by a Swedish company called Gu.  It was already on the market and selling really well.  They put the packaging on the table in front of him.  He nearly cried.  2 years’ work down the pan.  His dream in ashes...

"Cheer up James," they said.  "We’re kidding.  It’s your product.  It’s your brand."

Gu was born.  They now are the go to brand for squishy chocolate pudding products and sell into Waitrose et al with a £20 million turnover.

It’s a lovely story of how to sell creative work.

Customer care, no matter the customer

The same James Averdieck, now Founder and Managing Director of Gu Chocolate Puddings Ltd, has a dog called Willoughby.  The children love him.  Even James is quite fond of him.  But they were going on holiday and Willoughby had to go into kennels.  The children were very upset.

James chose a kennel called Dog Holidays – because he thought it was clever that, by changing the term, they’d changed the owner experience from ‘guilt’ to ‘here’s something that makes me feel better’.

They lived up to their name.  When Willoughly arrived they made sure they knew where he liked being scratched.  And after they got back they emailed him a picture of Willoughby’s holiday – a shot of Willoughby and his new friend Patch going for a walk together.   Their repeat purchase is assured.

Now who says clever marketing stuff doesn’t work?