Comments on: the beermat story

By: Bill Seitz

Bill Seitz — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 06:30:09 +0000

In one of Peter Small's books he writes about the period where he was making/selling little pins with graphic images on them. (I guess this was back in the 60s.) He worked out his process so he's try lots of new ideas, see what sold, do more of those and swap out the non-sellers for new ideas, etc. http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/PeterSmall Not unlike iterative software development: do the least amount of work possible to start getting feedback (even if that's from the internal requestor, not the external market).

By: Hugo

Hugo — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 05:00:52 +0000

Absolutely. You’ve heard this adage? — An Expert makes a difficult job appear easy. A Professional makes an easy job appear difficult.
H.B.

By: Tijs

Tijs — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 03:07:02 +0000

a nice try out medium for the web is textads. if you can sell your idea on a beermat you can in two sentences of online text too. added bonus: CTRs. how do you measure the effectiveness of 50 beermat campaigns?

By: Robert McCabe

Robert McCabe — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 01:44:03 +0000

Beermats are the number one marketing tool for micro breweries, but they have to be functional, with a clear easy to read message.
A good, FUNCTIONAL (ie absorbs spills!) beermat will stay on a table for more than one customer and influence the next person who sits down (the “I’ll try one of these.” effect) and get you far more brand recognition in the bar than posters and neon lights.
A good beermat is also well liked by the bar staff, which makes sure that your beermat gets used over less functional ones (I’ve seen thin, non-absorbent paper beermats that looked great but never got used).

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 23:32:21 +0000

Nice way of putting it, Johnmoore. Don’t forget to quote me when you use it

By: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)

johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 23:07:47 +0000

Hugh … I love the “coaster concept” idea. It forces you to focus your marketing message and if the idea manages to break through the clutter in a bar then it might just break through the clutter on the air. Nice idea which I will borrow. (Thanks.)