Dividends

In this post, I mentioned the message ("LIVE LIFE") my deodorant had for me and mused over what marketing genius dreamed up putting inspirational dictums on sticks of Degree. Well, I received an e-mail from that marketing genius:

Hi Ray,

My name is Mike F____ and I work on the Degree Brand team at Unilever... We came across your blog where you wrote about the message on the Degree antiperspirant sticks. First of all, I want to say how great it is to hear that consumers are actually noticing the phrases. All the logistics that went into the project were worth the effort! Just to give you some background on why you saw the message in the first place: Degree is positioned as the brand for men who take risks, and we thought it would be fun to incorporate that into the product (literally).

And you are correct in thinking that we have more than one: there are 5 different phrases that you can find on different sticks. Since you went to the trouble to write about us, we'd love to send you the whole lineup-- as an added incentive it's over a year's supply of free deodorant. Just send me your address, and we'll send
it out asap.

Thanks again for choosing Degree!

Regards,
Mike F_____
Marketing - Degree

312.xxx.xxxx

I sent along my address and yesterday FedEx dropped off a box containing five sticks of Degree anti-perspirant. Yes, there are actually six different messages. So, for the next year, I'll be pleasant to be around.

By the way, the other messages are "LEAD THE WAY", "GO FOR IT", EMBRACE CHALLENGE", "TAKE THE RISK" and "GO ALL IN". As a runner, I'm used to going all OUT, but I guess they're trying to capitalize on the poker craze.

So remember kids: Blogging pays dividends.