My husband asks me if we have any matches to light the bbq. I go into my drawer of random matchbooks I've collected over the years from restaurants I've loved and wanted to remember their names. Pull out one from a sushi restaurant, Kantana Robata, I went to probably 10 years ago in LA.
Finding this little matchbook brought back such vivid memories of how good my experience there was. It made me so incredibly happy - I thought I would never remember where it was or what it was called the next time I was in LA.
Twenty years ago, if you were dining at an upscale restaurant, and the bill arrived, it would've come with a branded matchbox for each person at our table. This would’ve been nothing out of the ordinary, maybe even a slightly nicer touch over leaving a bowl of matchbooks at the entrance or on the bar. But with the declining number of smokers as well as prohibitive laws against lighting up in public establishments, complimentary matchboxes are now somewhat of a rarity. While I’m not condoning a resurgence of cigarette consumption, from a branding and marketing perspective, perhaps we gave up on the matchbox a little too soon.
In this day and age, with its furor of media bombardment and endless distractions for consumers, you must find innovative ways of spreading awareness and making your brand viral. Freebies are one such tactic. Maybe instead of wondering about mere matchboxes, where have all the freebies gone that can potentially give a product social credibility? (most people only like things that other people already like)
For the frugal business, the idea of complimentary trinkets might not sit well. The two biggest problems with most giveaways are that, first, they have negligible utility which means they won’t be repeatedly used in front of others and, second, they are designed for private use only. Often the most viral freebies are the ones that have a sizeable production cost.
So in a nutshell... Spend a little to make none; spend a lot to make a ton.
Comments