Lip Balm Makes a Ruckus at Trade Show

Oftentimes, simplicity is the best strategy.  SnugZ USA, an industry supplier located in Salt Lake City, Utah, had difficulty making a splash at trade shows.  They felt as if they were a minuscule fish in a gargantuan pond!  Year after year they left trade show events wanting more business for their efforts.  They needed a new strategy, a new way to market themselves so that their name was the talk of the show.  They invented the “Pucker-Up” promotion, where they invited trade show attendees to enter their booth to sample their new line of lip balm.  Seemingly insignificant, they bolstered their promotion with the chance to win $500 if the participants could correctly identify the flavor of the lip balm.  By word of mouth, news spread throughout the show about SnugZ’s giveaway, and attendees flocked to their booth.  This gave SnugZ employees the chance to display their promotion-portfolio to hundreds of potential clients, as well as interact with them on a personal level.  Many attendees returned to the booth multiple times for more chances to guess the flavor, with some attendants claiming they even lost sleep trying to figure out the flavor!  The return?  Their lip balm sales skyrocketed from just 12 orders a month to over 80!  The lip balm also served as a “gateway product,” as consumers purchased other items in the SnugZ personal care line (the Z Collection), as well!  A fiscal year after the trade show, SnugZ charted $1 million in sales from the Z Collection!

Promotional Points-

1)   Kept it simple – Great promotions don’t have to cost an arm and a leg!  Creativity and ingenuity are priceless commodities to a great promotion (and they’re free)!

2)   Kept ‘em interested – The promotion invited interaction between trade show participants and SnugZ employees, allowing relationships between clients and the business to take form.  Creating personal relationships – relating to your customer – are vitally important to business success.  People respect and trust those they know.

3)   Kept trying – Prior to this particular trade show, SnugZ had a troublesome time selling their personal-product line, but believed in the product.  Just because something doesn’t work out of the gate doesn’t mean that it’s devoid of potential.  Bring the idea back into focus, rethink it, reform it, flip it, change it, and put it back out to witness the result.  Seek the thoughts of others, for as the old adage goes, “two heads are better than one.”

*Not all case studies described are owned by Surge Promotions. We seek to inform, enlighten, and inspire our clients to reach their creative limits through sharing information and working with them to achieve the most unique and most profitable promotion possible.