So, last week I had a really fun time with my daughter who is going to Calvin College in September. We went to The Container Store – I now have to admit how much I absolutely love this store because of all the cool organizational boxes, bags, tubes, trunks, etc. With this you can make a pretty good estimate of my personality type.
Anyway, we went to The Container Store primarily because of how cool their marketing was. They had a special Sunday night 3-hour sale for college-bound students and their parents (the ones with the credit cards). We got there 30 minutes after the sale started and there was already a line outside of people waiting to get in. Once we got through the doors we were handed name badges, bottled water, a bag of Charlie’s Chocolate Chip Cookies (the best part) and a checklist labeled, “Everything A College Freshman Needs” (and of course it was all available at the store).
It was PACKED – kids grabbing cool laundry bags, plastic bins and over-priced (even on sale) laundry racks and the parents were wondering if this was going to cost more than the first year’s tuition. When our shopping cart was nearly spilling over, we headed towards the checkout line (which wrapped around the entire perimeter of the inside of the store).
So as we waited to pay, I decided to do a little informal marketing survey. Much to my daughter’s dismay, I started to ask the parents and the kids how they found out about this sale. Every parent said they got a coupon in the mail and every student said, “Facebook”! Yes, Facebook. To my surprise most of them had gone online and signed up to connect with The Container Store Facebook Page and were notified many times of the upcoming sale.
Then I asked the parents what motivated them to come tonight – every single one said, “Because my kid asked to go.”
“So, it wasn’t the coupon you got in the mail that motivated you?” I asked.
“No – it was my kid.”
So here we are – the battle of the old and new style of direct marketing – old style is the coupon – new style is Facebook. And my unscientific survey proved how powerful Facebook marketing is.
As we left with my mile-long credit card receipt, I wondered if I could write off this cost as a business expense because of my marketing survey – probably not.