Marketing is pretty obvious if you sell consumer products like Procter & Gamble. The color of the Tide Detergent package, the fonts used, the material selected and the “feel” of the container in your hand are all functions of marketing. As is Tide’s Loads of Hope Community Program, which brings brightly-colored tractor trailers of washing machines and dryers to disaster areas so people without electricity and water can clean their clothes. For free.
Shortly after Superstorm Sandy a Loads of Hope truck showed up at our local Lowe’s and Duracell (a P&G brand at the time) set up a tent. I asked the nice young man how I could pay for the package of double A’s I had selected.
He was dumbfounded by my question. He replied, “We have no way of accepting payment. We are here to help.”
Tide and Duracell are premium products at premium prices. The Gagliano’s have bought no other products since, nor will we ever.
I am not sure what these campaigns cost P&G but I suspect it is decimal dust in the company’s enormous marketing budget.
But this small act of kindness was infinitely more powerful than the hundreds of millions they spend on advertising every year.
Generosity is always rewarded. Be kind and thoughtful. Give away your time, talent and treasure. Especially when someone needs it the most.
They may never forget it.
