Friends and Family

My Dad is one of the great marketers in America.  Life as his child was always like ”Let’s Make a Deal.”  He used to make my sisters and me work in his beloved yard raking leaves or picking up apples in the orchard.  He would keep us entertained by telling us stories about his work at Avon Products.

One of my favorite schemes he dreamed up at Avon was called “Operation Smile.”  The deal was that Avon would sell a customer a new lipstick for 5¢ if she would trade-in an old lipstick.  I know my Dad had to have gotten the idea from the pile of bad lipstick colors my mother kept on her dresser but refused to throw away.  The operations guys at Avon asked my Dad what in the world they were supposed to do with all the old lipsticks.  I promise the response was, “S#*T, I don’t care what you do with the lipsticks.”

Operation Smile was the most successful campaign in Avon’s history.  Millions of new customers were gained and so were their old lipsticks.  I know this for a fact because the operations guys sent many of them to our house in Connecticut and dumped them right on my father’s beloved yard.

Another example of my Dad’s brilliant marketing mind was his invention of MCI’s Friends and Family.  It was first big social marketing.  If you are not at least 45 years old you might not remember this, so here is how it worked.

I grew up in the olden days of long distance.  I can remember my North Carolina Grand Parents calling our house on Sunday afternoon, the cheapest calling time and when I answered the phone the first thing I heard was not “Hello.”  My Grand Father would say, “Quick, run, go get your father.  I’m calling long distance.”  It never helped that my Dad was always way out in yard cutting the grass of cutting a tree down.

Since long distance was still a big ticket item in the late 80’s he came up with the idea that if your were a MCI customer you could create a “calling circle” of ten people.  If any of those ten people were also MCI customers you would get something like 20% off the long distance calls you made to them.  This of course had customers convincing their loved ones to switch long distance carriers to be MCI customers to save the 20% and thus social marketing was born.

I remember when my Dad came up with this plan.  He called it “Friends and Family” as a code name, always worried about the AT&T spy lurking around him.  He said that the normal vernacular was “Family and Friends” so by switching the order no one would think any thing about it.  The code name stuck and became the product name.  It changed the parlance in America.  Everyone says friends and family now, not family and friends.

So in the marketing spirit that was bred into me I have a deal for you.  I am trying to raise $1,000 for every pound I lose.  Right now I am at $584.75.  If you would consider raising your pledge by at least $2 per pound or passing my blog to anyone else that would pledge at least $2 per pound I will give you your choice of either a loaf of home-grown-Dana-made Zucchini bread or a quart of Dana-made gazpacho.  I am sorry to say only local deliveries are available, but I really appreciate all you far-flung friends and family.

You can go to the pledge page and make another pledge and write me note upping your current pledge, send me an e-mail at Dana@onelangegroup.com, writing me a Facebook comment, Blog comment, or be really old fashioned and call me.  If you pass on the information to your Friends and Family make sure they let me know you are the connection so you can get your free goodies.

If I have not said it enough, let me say it again.  Thanks to all of you great Friends and Family who have supported me in this weight loss challenge and are thus feeding hungry people.  You are the best.