Successful Marketing Information

Any sales effort hopes to benefit from some successful marketing. Too often, however, people with sales experience lack a full understanding of how to achieve success through following good marketing techniques.

An observant marketer makes note of what seems to attract customers to a product. About forty years ago, when the salespeople for a manufacturer's representative were having a weekly meeting, one man had a surprising comment. He made his comment during a discussion about sales for one particular product--Minute Maid Orange Juice.

That man attributed the decline in purchases of orange juice to one of the sales tactics used by the Kraft Company. Kraft had packed its soft, spreadable cheese in juice glasses, but glasses that held only four ounces of liquid.

Now if the public started to think that a four ounce sized glass of orange juice was the "accepted size," then fewer people would consider drinking orange juice from a six or eight ounce glass. That one thoughful salesman suggested sales tactics that would encourage people to down orange juice during any time of the day, and from any size of cup or glass.

Now about five years after hearing that remark concerning juice glasses, the man in charge of the salespeople at that same company was asked to introduce a new line of sugar free, diet gelatin. Thus he brought some packages of the gelatin home, and asked his wife to prepare that new gelatin product. He told her that he wanted to take samples of the gelatin with him, when visiting the area stores.

While she was more than happy to prepare three of four different flavors of gelatin, that man's wife also had a suggestion. She felt that the flavors that would work best in gelatin salads would also be the best sellers. She pointed to the fact that the typical dieter eats a lot of salads.

It is too bad that the same woman did not teach a class in successful marketing. About the time when that one salesperson was talking about juice glasses, that same woman had a suggestion regarding Halloween treats. She thought that the makers of canned juices should pack their product in small containers, containers that could be given to Trick or Treaters.

Now that suggestion underlines the importance of being open to any adaptation to a marketing suggestion. That woman who talked about juice treats could not visualize the emergence of juice boxes. Obviously, some other enterprising soul did, and also envisioned the marketability of juice boxes.