It was a new idea. The ambitious marketing team designed wonderful stickers and then made a goal. Give away as many stickers as possible. They would go to festivals, malls and stand outside schools and ask, “Would you like a sticker?”
With the exception being the school where one of the marketing team members was arrested for loitering, the sticker scheme was perfect. Of course, everyone wanted a sticker. People around town wore them proudly.
Things started to derail when the marketing team attended their first company status meeting to assess the new strategy.
“We have gotten the word out,” the marketing team proudly proclaimed, and they laid out their stickers to the CEO. The sticker was stunning. It had a blue mosaic pattern with flowers, a bicycle and a bunny.
“Oh yes, I’ve seen these stickers. My kid came home with one from school and said that the guy who gave out the stickers was arrested.”
“Anyway,” the head of the marketing team said, ignoring the comment (and the arrest), “we’ve given away thousands of stickers.”
“Ok,” The CEO said, waiting for more.
“Thousands of stickers.”
“What does that have to do with the marketing plan?” the CEO asked.
“That is the marketing plan.”
The CEO lost it. He went on a rant about where he’d like to stick the sticker. He couldn’t believe his people could be this incredibly moronic. The sticker didn’t even have the company’s logo, and he wanted to know if the stickers were having any impact on sales.
The team produced a graph showing that sales were increasing.
“How can the stickers help increase sales?” the CEO yelled.
“Well, people ask why we’re giving away stickers. We say that we’re trying to make people happy because that’s the goal of our product. And then they ask what the product is, and we hand them this postcard.”
The marketing team pulled out a postcard that explained the company rather well and also included another sticker.
“And people are coming home and looking us up and buying things?”
“Yes, because they appreciate that we’re just trying to make them happy. We also wear T-Shirts with the company name on the front. We don’t need people to feel like we’re trying to sell them something. Plus, the marketing team is in a better mood and performing better at our jobs.”
“What jobs? You’re just handing out stickers,” the CEO said.
“Before, we were just tweeting,” the head of the marketing team countered.
“So, what’s the plan after this?”
“We are thinking about giving away bubbles. The wands can display our website.
That was it. The CEO fired the whole team, throwing everyone out with all of their stickers.
Weeks later, the CEO’s kid came home with a pack of bubbles. “Dad, can I buy something from this cool sticker company? They showed up at my school and started blowing bubbles!”