Saturday, March 12, 2011

Danish marketing

Danish retail king Lars Larsen (Jysk) wrote a book about himself and the company, and *gave away* the book, mailed it free to every home in Denmark! What brilliant marketing. It cost a small fortune by Danish standards, of course, but nothing his hugely successful company couldn't easily afford, and what mind-impact this will have, if the book is anything like interesting, for many many years.

Almost anybody who reads, when getting a free book in the mail, will at least try and browse it, see what it's like. And he gets his story from his own viewpoint out to everybody. What a great idea.

The only trick, I'd guess, is to not be so arrogant or obviously self-promoting in the book that you get a backlash in the press. And if the book is actually good and has something to say, it's a home run.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

That still seems really wasteful. It wouldn't have been a big deal if it had been an ebook, but that's a lot of paper. Sure we're talking about a country of, what, 5 million...but even so.

Anonymous said...

I'm mystifed by the success of that company. A few years ago when still a poor student I bought a wardrobe from them, a cheapo for maybe a litte over $100. It was a piece of shit. I've nver bought anything from them again.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

They have put up a store in my neighborhood here in the UK. I walked past the other day, and I have to admit, it did look like sh*t, I didn't even walk in.
But we gotta 'dmit, there's a big market for sh*t, as long as it's cheap.

I did buy decent bed sheets from them back in Denmark in the nineties though. When bed sheets was what they did.

Mary Mills said...

I beg to differ with the comments made by the 2 Anons and the chief blogger. I think you are wrong to make such comments especially as 2 of you are not brave enough to put your name to the comments. I never pay attention to opinions expressed by anonymous people, especially if they do not have experience of the subject being discussed.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Fair enough.

Anonymous said...

Sure, whatever you say "Mary Mills." Not sure what you mean by having no experience of the subject, as I said that my opinion of the quality of their product was based on having bought an item of theirs. So, not only are you colossally stupid (being unable to see that you are yourself basically anonymous), but to lazy to read. Too stupid, also, to realize as you should have by now that comments should be judged on their own fucking merits and not on who has said them.

Anonymous said...

Companies don't need anyone to defend their product. Jysk appears to be doing quite well, despite the low quality of their merchandise. I'm not sure it's actually any worse than a lot of the particle board and veneer that seems to be the standard today. You have to pay through the nose to get quality, and most people don't want to (or can't) do that. Personally I like to buy furniture from the Amish and Menonites who make really nice stuff. Their avoidance of electricity and technology and rejection of our way of life doesn't apparently prevent them from taking our money. :-)

mary said...

Oh dear, no need to get out of your pram and shake your rattle!! I may be stupid but I certainly am not foul mouthed or verbally abusive to people do not share my views as you are, also you seem to have a problem with anger management.

Anonymous said...

I'll take being verbally abusive and foulmouthed over being stupid. You can have that one. It's by far the worst of the failings you listed. I'd argue you are abusive, though, as you could have just kept your mouth shut and let us anonymous cowards express our unworthy, uninformed opinions.

mary said...

O dear!! I feel sorry for you, a person that can't accept criticism and over reacts to it usually suffers from low self esteem.

Anonymous said...

I can accept criticism, my point (and I'm not the least surprised it escaped you) is that you're guilty of the same thing you accused me of. That clear enough? I'm afraid Dr. Seuss is dead, so I can't dumb it down any more than that.

mary said...

My final comment is that you sound very sad and immature. I see that 2 of your comments were posted at 1.13 am and 5.56 am, could it be that you are one of the millions of unemployed bods living off the taxpayer? If so you need to get a job and a life. I am going to get on with my life now. I have wasted too much time already on this nonsense.

Anonymous said...

You've never heard of time zones? Eolake is based in England. Moron.

Anonymous said...

For example, it's not actually 2:14 where I am. I do congratulate you on proving far more effectively than I or anyone else could how grossly stupid and ignorant you are. Well done! (Sort of.)

Anonymous said...

I post at weird times too but I'm not unemployed. I might be if I did it too much...

mary said...

I know that Eolake lives in England, he is my friend and neighbour. As you prefer to remain anonymous and gave no indication that you lived in foreign climes how was I to know that you do not live in England? I do know about time zones, I have visited New York twice, Toronto once, Israel once and lived in Spain for 4 years and Portugal for 1 year. It is obvious to me by your immature comments that you live a very sheltered life. Go out and live, life is short and it should not be wasted.......

Anonymous said...

As you prefer to remain anonymous

As do you, "Mary."

how was I to know that you do not live in England?

You could not know, but should have considered the possibility. Just as I could not know you were a friend of Eolake's (hard to believe, but there we are) but figured based on what you said about the times I'd posted that you likely were living in England.

It is obvious to me by your immature comments that you live a very sheltered life.

Had you intended to trot that one out, you might have considered your own comments more carefully.

Go out and live, life is short and it should not be wasted.......

I'd suggest you take your own advice. Although, if you're a neihbor of Eolake's (I can't believe he'd be friends with such a dolt, though) there's probably not a lot for you to do, living as you do in hillbilly central.

You posted the above message at 7:34 AM. Since the time is based on Eolake's location, I can only imagine that you're sitting on your ass, having collected your government check. Northern England is especially known for the high percentage of layabouts on the dole. Stop scratching your ass and get a job you bum. No doubt you'll try to tell me you're on your day off, you work shifts, or you're just about to head out the door. Riiiiight.

"The bums will always lose" as one Jeffrey Lebowski said.

P.S. It's nice to see you've decided to waste more of your valuable time on me. Of course we both know you've got a lot of it.

mary said...

O dear you are more disturbed than I originally thought I DO have a very busy life and travelled extensively during my working life and also since I retired 11 years ago. I am 73 years old .............

Jes Johnson said...

Mary, I would just ignore Anon's comments. He does this with everyone, regardless of what you say or what the conversation's about. He's just trying to get a rise out of you.

mary said...

Thank you for that Jes.

Anonymous said...

All the Anonymouses obviously get lumped together, and putting a name on it doesn't really make a difference. As far as I can tell, you and Jes could both be the same anonymous person you're apparently arguing with. Create an account (not difficult). As I think Eolake has pointed out in the past, while this doesn't in fact make you any less anonymous it at least means that your comments will be associated only with that account name and not with all the many who go by "Anonymous" or put a name in Name/URL.

Mary said...

I think that it is more likely that you and the foul mouthed ill mannered oaf that verbally abused me are one and the same person. You sound as disturbed as he does. For the 3rd time ....... I am a 73 year old female who has had a very busy life and still has. Eolake is my neighbour and he knows I am who I say I am.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I think this discussion stopped being productive a while ago, and started being just unpleasant. So how about all involved just let bygones be bygones and walk away and forget about it, using their attention on something more worthwhile?

Mary said...

Well said boss!!