Laura’s Winning Ideas

Proposal Expert, Laura Ricci, Muses on How She Reached Her 85% Hit Rate, Creating and Managing Dynamic Teams and Living Through Turnarounds Supporting Good People Doing Great Things

Unintended Consequences

Filed under: Business Development, Marketing, Proposals, Strategy — LRicci at 10:40 pm on Sunday, August 6, 2006

A theme run amok can have the opposite of your intended effect. Be sure to test your idea against a variety of suspects and develop a sense of the difference between edgy and risque.

Sephora convinced a coffee barista to carry advertisments on their coffee cups for a nearby Sephora makeup store. The cups had a lipstick stain printed on the rim, leaving men with a queasy feeling about the cup and the coffee shop.

This idea was probably well received by the target audience (women) but some of the observers had a less supportive emotional reaction.

Paul Parton of The Brooklyn Brothers, would have suggested instead focusing on an empowering morning message: “You look absolutely gorgeous this morning.” or “Today is going to be a great hair day.”

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  • 2 Comments »

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    Comment by TheBizofKnowledge

    August 6, 2006 @ 11:43 pm

    I just wanted to say that I completely agree with this post. Before embarking on a particular marketing campaign, I try to get feedback from a variety of people with different backgrounds to see if any of these kinds of “unintended consequences” crop up.

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    Pingback by Advanced Technology Products Interactive » Blog Archive » Something for you to read.

    August 11, 2006 @ 5:06 am

    [...] Laura writes about Unintended Consequences of your marketing ideas. Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

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