I have another great everyday marketing example – this thrilled me almost as much as the Buy the Hyatt example I gave you. Let me know what you think…

Recently my sweetheart came home with a boatload of toilet paper – two 12 packs. As a two person household, one that is frequently out of the house during the day, toilet paper isn’t something we use that much of. It’s not like we have a household of kids making forts with it or shoving it down the toilet just to see what happens, or needing their sweet little noses wiped with it, so two 12 packs will last us for many months to come. I wasn’t even completely sure where I’d store it all.

He proudly told me that he got this massively great deal and couldn’t pass it up. Our local HEB (my favorite grocery store already) offered a free 12 pack of their house brand if you bought a 12 pack of the high end, and much more expensive, national brand. Dramatic difference in price and, thanks to their amazingly clever promotion, I could now decide for myself – side by side – if the house brand competed with the quality of the national brand.

Smart thinking, right? So, let’s break it down. Both me and my sweetheart (who is now calling himself the mighty toilet paper hunter because he enjoys getting a deal so much) love HEB’s more because of their generosity. Their move certainly makes it less likely that I’ll be buying toilet paper at the big box store Costco, which I normally do. Score one for store loyalty and visit frequency.

I also get to compare their product head to head with a national brand. Score one for differentiation and competitive positioning. And, I”m here to tell you that the national brand is slightly better but not so much that it’s worth the huge difference in price. I will buy HEB’s house brand next time (next year?) I need to buy toilet paper.

Since I rarely buy toilet paper in more than a 4 roll pack if I buy it at HEB’s, they also got me to consider a larger pack for the future. Score one for raising per customer transactional price, one of the holy grails in retail selling.

All together, here’s what HEB’s got with their promotion – a reinforced loyal consumer who is there more often, only to their store, who is buying more than they used to per visit. Check, check, check – score all the way around. Call me a marketing dork, but I think what they did is brilliant.

So, what we can learn and apply from this? Is there something in your business you could do to offer a sample, head to head, with a competitor? Are you using clever ideas to validate your costing? Are you giving your already loyal fans a way to brag on you and to feel good about being loyal to you? Can you be as smart as a toilet paper scheme? I bet you can….share what you do!

Vicki Flaugher, CEO
SmartWoman Guides