Promoting Electric Percolators

Promoting electric percolators was the test I was given by the managing director who was concerned that sales had fallen and wanted a new discount approach to the marketing of the product. I was to present a review of the product and suggest ways in which sales could be increased to justify the continued sale of these appliances.
I knew that they had a low rating amongst the public and were seen as old fashioned but the sales figures did suggest that there was still a future for the product and it was up to me to prove that and consider ways in which the product could be moved forward. The first move I made was to take one home to try it.
My wife frowned when she saw it as obviously being in the trade we had the latest coffee maker at home and used it constantly for ourselves and for the many friends we had over for dinner. It caused quite a stir. The first thing was that my wife used it and was so impressed by its simplicity she preferred the coffee made by the percolator than the usual one we had.
It is a simplistic design really just a stainless steel coffee pot with a metal basket that you put the grounds on. The water heats up and is drawn up a tube to drip on to the grounds until all the water has circulated. The first thing we noticed was that the coffee was really hot and that the flavor was remarkably good. It seemed a bit slow to me as it hissed and gurgled noisily but my wife said that it was just as quick as our usual one.
I thought long and hard about promotions considering ideas like a discount price on every purchase or maybe a coupon available with another purchase but my best idea was to produce an advertisement that appealed to the nostalgia that people so loved. If I could promote the product along those lines I thought that percolators could really take off.
As a boy I had often stayed with my grandmom and grandpop in their cabin in the wilds and me and grandpop would go out hunting or fishing during my vacation. Just having that contraption had brought those memories flooding back to me and I enjoyed a long wistful period where my mind wandered back to those days and I understood the attraction of buying percolators and a TV advertising campaign based on my time as a boy could not help but get people thinking back to their own childhoods and evoking such a response from them.
I arranged the advertising and introduced the idea to my board of directors. They loved it. It was a trip down memory lane and it showed a boy and his old grandpop returning from a days fishing. It showed an old fashioned kitchen with a percolator operating on the counter top and the two accepting a hot coffee from grandmom. I wish we had smellyvision because that was what I remembered most, the warmth, and the noise of the percolator and the aroma of fresh brewed coffee.
The advertisement did go out and we did offer a discount to encourage people to buy and it was a huge success. The sales of electric percolators soared as many people went out to make a purchase of an item that was cheaper, easier to clean and brought back fond memories of a special time in their lives.

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