Fat Murray
Fifty percent of a new product is the product, and fifty percent is marketing the product.
Ronnie Fliss of Montville, NJ an information technology professional lost her job after 911. She thought that with her skill she would get a job in a reasonable amount of time. A year later -no job. A friend suggested she look into baking gourmet dog biscuits. Ronnie has a basset hound named Murray. She started Fat Murray’s Doggy Treats, a company which bakes and markets healthy, fresh baked treats for dogs to pet stores, health food stores and on the web. Now, she regularly services 35 stores and takes Murray, her “Sales Manager” , and Barney, his kid brother who steals the show, and any stray dog treats, along on her sales calls. Many of the customers love to pet Murray and Barney. Murray is a more effective sales manager than a guy in a dark blue suit. The Basset Team of Murray and Barney is a terrific example of a marketing device that works because it’s an integral part of the business. No one forgets two large basset hounds when they come bouncing into a store.
Who can forget “Smokey the Bear” and “McGruff, the Anti Crime Dog” .
A marketing device doesn’t have to be an animal or a child to be effective; it can also be a cartoon character or a real person. Ronald McDonald is a great example. The benefit of a device is immediate identification and recognition of your business service. These days, that could mean a lot in terms of new customers and sales.
Moral: The moral of the story has been stated -using effective marketing devices to bolster your image. But today I’d like to add a comment about our current economic times. We have just bailed out our financial and auto industries (and G-d knows who else) to the tune of 800 billion dollars We’ve sent a great deal of our manufacturing overseas. But you can put your economic fears aside as I can assure you we make the best gourmet dog biscuits right here in America.
I’m Professor Bruce. Thank you for listening.