In the early 1900s women were still constrained by Victorian-era, conservative beauty standards.
Dyeing your hair in particular was seen as a practice done only by “loose women” and s*x workers, not respectable society ladies.
But one marketing campaign helped change that.
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In the 1950s Clairol was launching a new product. A way to dye your own hair at home in just one step.
Previously women were so uncomfortable with letting it be known they were dyeing their hair, they’d book hair appts at salons under fake names or wear disguises.
So the primary challenge Clairol faced was overcoming this stigma.
The company enlisted the help of an advertising agency, which handed off the account to its only female copywriter, Shirley Polykoff.
And luckily she had personal experience to draw inspiration from.
Shirley was a blonde and extremely proud of that attribute. She secretly lightened her hair on a few occasions when she noticed it was getting darker.
So she was incredibly embarrassed when her MIL privately asked Shirley’s husband if her hair color was *really* natural.
Based on that experience and her familiarity with women consumers of the era, Shirley came up with the infamous “Does she...or doesn’t she” campaign.
The implication was that Clairol hair dye was so natural looking, no one would ever be able to tell that you used it.
The campaign also focused on employing the right visuals to address customer concerns.
Wholesome looking, primarily blonde women were used as models. Many times they were depicted as mothers, standing next to children with similarly colored hair.
Interestingly enough, some male publishing execs initially wouldn't run ads bc they viewed “Does she...or doesn’t she” as being suggestive.
Shirley convinced them to run it by conducting a poll of women that showed none of them found the slogan to be sexual or off-color at all.
It was a wild success.
Sales increased x4. Hair dye grew in popularity until over half of American women were consumers.
And the lasting impact remains seen. Some estimate that 60-75% of women worldwide dye their hair today. Clairol maintains a 50% chunk of industry sales.
And if you enjoy reading about interesting marketing campaigns, past and present, please follow me or check out my newsletter. chantellemarcelle.com/marketing-news…
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I doubled their site traffic & revenue, overall CVR improved 16%. For paid social, CVR improved 28% YoY. My ad creative had an 88% higher avg CTR.
And they still walked.
Here are 3 lessons I learned.
1. Numbers mean nothing on their own. All those stats I rattled off in the first tweet are true, but they're just hot air.
Most people have a hard time conceptualizing stats unless you give them context - a way to frame their thinking.
Ex: Apple doesn't just list the technical specs for an iPhone. Many ppl feel like an iPhone carries a certain status, a certain quality. But most consumers can't tell me the specific differences between iPhone and Android hardware or OS.
MEGA LIST of where to stream a bunch of classic & new holiday movies 🎄
Bookmark this if you're also tired of having to look it up every time you want to watch one.
(Titles with * next to them are family movies, in my opinion, but no guarantees.)
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First up, Netflix.
- White Christmas
- The Holiday
- A Christmas Prince
- Dash & Lily
- Jingle Jangle
- The Princess Switch (1-3)
And Netflix's library is massive, so there's a part II.
- The Great British Baking Show: Holidays
- Ladybug & Cat Noir's holiday special
- And a bunch of Hallmark-style holiday romance titles
colorful, fun marketing mascots like Tony the Tiger.
Establishing brand loyalty through stand-out marketing & advertising was the “sunshine that made the business plant grow,” according to cereal guru C.W. Post.
And that's the challenge faced by Quaker Oats and their
I’ve grown the organic search traffic on my website by over 330% this year alone with:
▶️ SEO best practices
▶️ Content strategy
▶️ Social media marketing
Here are 5 easy tips you can copy. 👇
1/ Consistency is crucial.
Earlier this year I committed to hitting a regular quota of publication. This was more successful some months than others. But I found overall the quantity of posts was less important than the quality.
When I posted fluff pieces to stay on track, it benefited me by keeping me in a creation mindset.
But the best results came from content that was timely, well researched, well written, and thorough.
There are pieces I could delete that wouldn't affect my site's organic traffic
If you're always looking for inspiration when putting together marketing campaigns, I've got 10 great sources you can bookmark to help save you time.
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1/ Facebook Ad Library - a searchable database of actively running Facebook & Instagram ads facebook.com/ads/library
2/ Really Good Emails - a huge database of email marketing examples that also includes some code examples to help you try out what you like yourself reallygoodemails.com