ESTÚPIDO SAVANNAH - Tuesday, February 03, 2009 11:18:12 PM

People have no sense of history and are losing out on an amazing opportunity.

A little history lesson on the cola wars.

At the start of the Great Depression, the folks who made Pepsi were on their last legs. The company had been through two bankruptcies and four different owners.

During the Depression, Pepsi had the most successful run in its history to that time going from bankrupt to more than $2 million in annual sales.

 How did they do that? In the darkest of economic times, how did a busted down company not only stay afloat but prosper?

Advertising

Actually that should be: Advertising and Clever Marketing

In 1934 Pepsi introduced a brand new product and convinced broke Americans to buy it.

Pepsi went from a 6 ounce bottle to a 12 ounce bottle and charged the same price, a nickel, for twice as much product.

Coke continued to charge a nickel for the 6 ounce.

They also started an aggressive “Twice as Much for a Nickel” advertising campaign that culminated with the first radio jingle “Nickel Nickel” in 1940.

The reaction was pretty much Fat Kid + Cake, revenue increased and market share grew and grew.

So what can today’s advertisers learn from the Pepsi model?

In Chaos there is Opportunity

I know for a fact that today’s economy is nowhere near as bad as any year of the Depression. When we get close to 25% unemployment we can start talking direct comparisons. But one thing about the current situation is exactly like back in the day and that is FEAR.

Remember that fella in the wheelchair said “All we have to fear is fear itself”?

Yeah what I see right now is a bunch of scared folks. Scared that they might lose their jobs or their company might go under.

Tell me, how exactly is you not buying stuff now going to help if either of those things happen anytime soon? Are you going to be able to save enough to get by in time before the axe falls? NO!

Actually, your failure to buy stuff combined with your neighbor’s failure to buy stuff is actually creating the situation that could lead to that axe falling. We are currently living in a self fulfilling prophesy.

Oh I digressed… this was supposed to be about how businesses can take advantage of all the scared little sheep not a post berating the little sheep.

Businesses need to get aggressive right now. Start advertising heavily. Come up with something that offers more value, bigger savings, and keep it simple, Twice as Much for a Nickel simple.

Sonic, McDonalds and Burger King are spending, spending, spending, to pump their value menus. Starbucks just announced they will add value meals to their lineup. 

Denny’s had the free Grand Slam on Tuesday morning.

Hyundai is offering a money back guarantee and their sales were up like 14% in January.

I see all this empty airtime on local TV stations and, as some readers have pointed out, fewer ads in the paper and I have to wonder, are our business leaders stupid?

This is the time to expand, especially if you are number 2.

Celia Dunn should be buying up every available column inch and every billboard and bus ad to advertise that they are offering a money back guarantee on a house in the Hyundai model .

Carey Hilliard’s should be on the radio and television every half hour advertising that they are cutting their prices in half.

John Davis should advertise a “buy one rose get one free” special.

F.P. Wortley should be offering to turn peoples gold jewelry into diamonds.

Now is the time to build market share! Seriously, you need to come up with a way to really help people and market it aggressively.

Now is the time to lose some money in exchange for some genuine brand loyalty.