It's the soil, stupid!

I've been thinking about marketing a LOT lately. Between looking for a job, subscribing to a number of trade journals and insider blogs, updating my LinkedIn profile, reinventing my website and working on freelance projects... it's all I think about, really. And then there's talking to my friend Tim.

Tim and I swap marketing ideas and design critiques back and forth on g-chat pretty much all day long. Whether it's discussing guerilla tactics using condoms, beachball or magnets, or debating typography decisions, our conversation might reach to the far ends of the earth and yet never strays very far. It's said that people tell 10 friends when they've had a bad experience with a product/service, and maybe tell one if their experience was extraordinarily positive. Tim and I discuss both all the time.

Well. This afternoon, after giving me feedback on my in-progress website design and discussing audience-increasing ideas for a summer theater company in CT, I went downstairs to grab some brainfood. As I passed our front door on the way to the kitchen, something caught my eye. Solicitors, usually of the lawn services type, are always leaving flyers tucked into my parents' front door. The bolder ones (or maybe they're just time-pressed) will actually tie small rocks to their product and chuck them in the general direction of our front entry. Today, sitting on the front step, was this: a small plastic baggy filled with dirt, with this informative tag stapled to the corner.

Ladies and gentlemen: targeted advertising.

It reads: Ask about our super blend of 6-B Vitamins, C&K, Biotin, Sea Kelp, Yucca Extracts, Beneficial Bacteria, Amino & Folic Acid, Nitrogen, Poultry Manure, Crushed Granite, Water MGT. Gels. (Then, of course, the blade of grass saying, "It's the soil stupid!") Followed by "Got Compost?" and "(Delivery and/or Installation Available).

You'll notice they've taken the pharmaceutical route in telling you about a bunch of ingredients that you don't understand, much less know whether they affect your soil (Did you ever see the Seinfeld bit? 'Now, with Redsun!' 'Oh good, finally, more Redsun!'). Also, there is no name or company listed. (It's probably somebody's personal cell phone.) It is tempting to actually call them up and ask about their "super blend of 6-B Vitamins, C&K, Biotin, Sea Kelp, Yucca Extracts, Beneficial Bacteria, Amino & Folic Acid..." You could even take it a step further and ask how they came up with this blend of ingredients or how, for instance, they collect poultry manure. These are just ideas.

Anyway, points for creative approach and, well, delivery. Points deducted for provided information. But actually, given that this was actually delivered with a... bag of dirt... extra credit points for sampling your product to your consumer.

Oh, suburbia.