Charlie Chaplin would keep filming until he got it perfect (100:1 filming ratio to get the ladder to swing just right etc…).
In “the Kid“, the little girl would throw rocks at windows, while our handyman walks right behind to fix them.
Gillette would give away razors just to sell the blades (HP has done the same with its ink).
Levis would sell jeans during the Gold Rush, along with those who profited by selling picks and pickaxes.
Sony founder had his reps wear bigger shirt pockets to fit his “portable” radios (showmanship par excellence).
Hyundai founder tried his hands at the Pony, while Detroit was busy with its Pinto.
Pepsi had its “taste test” with blindfolded customers, while Wendy used little old lady for “where is the beef” campaign.
Barnes and Nobles followed Moses down the mountain, saying “let my people read” (beyond the tablets).
Woodstock organizers did the same when they decided to “let my people in”.
Costco built its shopping carts bigger than others (as a results, people bought more paper products) while Cisco bought up its competitors to solve innovator’s dilemma.
Apple launched its I-phone, with long lines wrapped around New York and San Francisco’s street corners. Chinese-Americans would buy them in bulk to stock up for their next suit-case entrepreneurial trip (where do they think the phones were first manufactured in?).
And the mother of them all is Facebook, where out of our own volition, we volunteer our intimate information, information we wouldn’t tell our mothers, so they can help advertisers target the right kind of demographics.
Marketing genius! They know about us more than we do ourselves.
Facebook went from on-campus to off-campus, from Tulane to Tunisia and flourished in an era of change, from Apartheid to ARPANET. The tiger is out of the cage, with its long tail. Nothing is for free. I learned that after my first 5 minutes of silent movie (wheeled around on the back seat of the peddler’s bicycle). Charlie Chaplin was timeless.
We all had our shares of being had by marketing genius, willingly especially during Super Bowl, the Davos of them all.
Thang Nguyen 555 