Advertising Is Good For You

How to inspire fierce, long-term brand loyalty

Found this image on Facebook. Wish I knew where this dry cleaner is located so I could give it the credit it deserves.

Click here to see a similarly creative approach.

Free pizza with every vasectomy

If the offer of a free pizza is all it takes for you to get a vasectomy, it's best you stop breeding right away.

 

"Dr. Evangelos Geraniotis, left, and administrator Evan Cohen are offering a free pizza for men who get a vasectomy at Urology Associates of Cape Cod in Hyannis. The men have timed the promotion to go along with March Madness."
From the Cape Cod Times.

Click here to see a cool business card for a dental practice.

How to have a successful yard sale

For some inexplicable reason, otherwise intelligent people turn stupid when they have a yard sale.

Harsh? Perhaps. But that doesn't make it any less true.

In yard sales, as in everything else, "because that's how everybody does it" is rarely the best strategy.

Want to get rid of your junk and make a few bucks in the process?  Here are nine simple suggestions that drive people to your yard sale and encourage them to buy.

1. Don't treat the items you're selling like crap. If you're piling the items you're selling on your lawn -- or worse, on your driveway -- you're signaling to buyers that you think the stuff is worthless old junk. Display it on tables, for goodness' sake. Borrow some tables or fashion them out of cardboard boxes if you have to. And use tablecloths.

2. Display items at a comfortable level whenever possible. Another reason not to pile your stuff on the lawn. Bending over is uncomfortable, for some it's even painful. Discomfort is not conducive to shopping.

3. Clean your merchandise. Wash it, rinse it, dust it... Do what you have to do to make the items you're selling look attractive rather than germ-laden. You'll not only sell more of your stuff, you'll get better prices for it

4. Don't piss and moan about buyers within earshot of other buyers. Anyone who frequents yard sales and flea markets knows what I'm talking about: some vendors, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they're insulting every buyer who hears them, talk among themselves about how "they" all want something for nothing, how none of "them" know the value of anything, what slobs "they" are when handling the items for sale... "They" are the people you want to give their money to you. Be polite and don't talk about them behind their backs.

5. Don't put up signs that say "yard sale today." How are passersby supposed to know if the sign was put up this morning or last week? Put the day, date, times and the address of the sale on there. Make your signs big and use letters large and thick enough for drivers to read without getting into an accident. And be sure to take your signs down after your yard sale. Not doing so makes you a slob.

6. Make a curb-side display of 3 - 5 of your best items for sale. As the day goes on and these items sell, replace them with other attractive items. Remember, you only have a few seconds to convince people your yard sale is worth the stop.

7. Don't sit in a lawn chair watching your buyers. It makes them feel stupid.

8. As things sell, consolidate your merchandise. A half-empty table makes people think all the good stuff has been sold. Keep your tables looking full. Put away empty tables when you no longer need them.

9. Last but not least, run an ad in your local paper and post your sale on Craig's List. Provide the date, times, address and a nearby landmark or major cross street. And list the types of items you're selling.

Image: Yard Sale Bloodbath

Topical gym promotion: the "Stomp Mel Gibson" special

Promotion from Synergy Fit Clubs in New Jersey.

Found at Animal New York

Free donuts at Dunkin' Donuts today

To celebrate National Doughnut Day — today — Dunkin' Donuts will give you a free doughnut with the purchase of a beverage.

Free gun with purchase

 Max Motors in Kansas City, Missouri, is giving away a free AK-47 with the purchase of a new truck.

Apparently, the promotion has helped sell a lot of cars.

On Max Motors' website there's a banner featuring a large AK-47. Roll over it and it makes the sound of an assault rifle being fired. How adorable.

Most popular cents-off coupons

According to coupons.com, the ten most popular online coupon categories printed in April were:

1. Cereal

2. Baking ingredients

3. Entertainment

4. Nutrition and diet

5. Bathroom tissue

6. Eye care

7. Soap and body wash

8. Feminine hygiene

9. Pizza

10. Juice

 

In case you didn't know, coupons.com is a site from which consumers can print manufacturer coupons for savings on popular name-brand products.

A T-shirt company can get away with this

If you're Nataliedee, you can do this.

 

If you're any other business, it would just be in bad taste.

Like most great ideas, this one is brilliant in its simplicity

UK digital agency Poke came up with an innovative way to use Twitter to increase business for its clients.

Poke has created BakerTweet. In essence, BakerTweet sends out a message on Twitter every time a participating bakery has something fresh and fabulous coming out of the oven.

Imagine sitting in your office in the late afternoon. You're tired and hungry. Your concentration's shot. When all of sudden you get a Tweet that the bakery up the street just took three trays of chewy chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. If you leave now, they'll be cooled to just the right temperature when you get there.

Britain's obesity problem is about to get a lot worse.

Source: AdFreak      Image: Amber in Norfolk

Timberland knows what it's doing

North of Boston, we got at least a foot of snow over the last 24 hours. There was no school today. Many people stayed home from work.

I bet a lot of people sat in front of their computers much of the day. Timberland figured as much, too. So they sent their customers an email with the subject line, Snow today. $20 offer ends Tuesday.

Some customers may have remembered that they had received a similar email last week at the start of the promotion. Others probably assumed this was something special Timberland was doing just to take advantage of the snow day.

Either way, it was a timely email that I'm sure was well received.

By the way, the email says I can pass the offer on to a friend, so here you go: spend $100 at a Timberland store or Timberland.com and save $20, plus get free shipping, when you use promo code BUNDLE20.

Student work: ad campaign for camping store sale

"Get the family ready. Bass Pro Shops Camp Sale. Starts May 1st, 2009."

Advertising School: The Creative Circus, Atlanta

Source: Ads of the World

Because nothing says "Be mine!" like perforated beef tiles steamed in onions.

For Valentine's Day, your Chicagoland area White Castle franchisees offer sit-down dining, with a table and chairs and plates and a waitress and, oh, golly, I don't know, just everything a girl could possibly want!

 

Oh, here's the menu. I'm sorry, I mean, here's le menu:

I'm thinking that those sitcoms where the husband's a big slob, yet his wife looks like Courtney Thorne-Smith, garner really high ratings in the Chicagoland area.

The marketing team at Hyundai deserves a bonus

According to Wednesday's New York Times, automaker Hyundai's market share almost doubled last month as its sales rose 14%.

Hyundai's newest marketing strategy, called Hyundai Assurance, is almost surely the cause. Hyundai is "promising to let buyers return their vehicles, at no cost in most cases and with no penalty to their credit rating, if they lose their job or income within a year."

Read the rest of the New York Times article HERE.