We love it when business cards bust a creative move, but we’re baffled by a recent promotion for a cheese shop in Brazil.
The Bon Vivant Cheese Emporium (cool name; un-cool marketing) boldly decided to go where no promo should: It turned its business cards into cheese graters.
The goal was to give customers a handy little gift to reinforce the Bon Vivant brand. If they ever have an urgent need for freshly grated cheese, they can whip out a block of parmesan, reach into their wallets and grate away.
We can’t ever imagine this scenario.
Encouraging customers to keep a kitchen promotional product in their wallets? Next to their grimy credit cards and cash? Yes, that’s totally logical.
This promo was a flop. Bon Vivant wanted a unique business card that doubled as a useful gift for customers. Instead, it gave people something they’ll never use. At least we hope not.
We give it credit for using a promo item that’s relevant to its business, but it’s better to keep the cheese graters where they belong: in the kitchen.
Promo know-how tip:
Think about your audience and where they’ll likely use your promotional giveaways. The more you can fine-tune your promo gifts, the more useful and appreciated they’ll be.
The best thing about promotional items, to me, is the fact that a lot of the items are very fun to play with. There are robot-shaped USB drives, stress balls are no longer sand-filled balloons (miss those), and of course the pens that have the cruise ship moving around when you turn it upside down. Innovation is why branding items work.
I LOVE this item and the idea behind it! This would never go in to my wallet since I wouldn’t carry it around. But, this sure would fit nicely into a drawer and take up a LOT less space than my big “box” grater. It would also be much easier to pull out when I want to grate just a little nutmeg and not a giant block of cheese, too!