In his book, Free Prize inside, marketing guru Seth Godin talks about how , "Innovation is cheaper than advertising" and a way to make any product a bestseller is to couple it with "a feature that the consumer might be attracted to". When you think about it, this makes a lot of sense, and finding new ways for products to be used or attract attention creates a buzz in the marketplace. By now, you have probably heard or seen the Mentos and Diet Coke thing. If you haven't go to eepybird.com, and you will see it.
Basically, a trial lawyer and a professional juggler get together and put 5 mentos in to a liter of Diet Coke, and they have something that is safer than fireworks but looks just as fun. About 3 weeks ago, I got an email with the eepybird video from a friend. Then a week later, at a seminar, someone asks if we had seen or heard about the Mentos thing. I showed them the video, and we all laughed about it. Two days later, these dudes are on the today show, doing their thing, for three minutes. I am sure sales of Diet Coke and Mentos have gone up, not to mention the fact that they have both received a ton of free publicity. In the beginning of June, when the buzz was starting to hit, Susan McDermott , the 'Official Spokesperson' for Coca-Cola felt that people should drink their product, not do experiments with it, and went on to say that the craziness of Mentos doesn't fit the brand personality. Whatever. But now it seems as though Susan is changing her mind, and is pleased that people are having fun with it. Geee, isn't that what the intent was all along? It doesn't really matter how much money a company spends branding their product, ultimately, the customer still decides why they like it. Just wait until Christmas when Coke ads come out. They will feature the Polar Bears, some Peppermint Mentos, and the Special Edition Holiday Diet Coke, complete with a candy cane thing you can use to push the mentos into the bottle.
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