I like to sometimes focus on the marketing wonders of the world. I look at the strife that big companies and industries deal with on a day-to-day basis. I watch the television for catchy new ads and cheesy commercials and decide which are the best and worst. I even dream of being in marketing and put images together in my head to figure out how I can sell a product better. By far, however, the most ingenious marketing tactic of all that I have seen is that of the Girl Scouts selling their cookies. These cookies are by far the best tasting cookies and the most anticipated buy of the year for some.
The season has arrived. Girl Scout cookie season is in full swing. People everywhere in the United States are looking to get their hands on a box of their favorite cookies, whether they be Samoas, Thin Mints, Shortbreads, Do-Si-Dos, Tagalongs, Chalets, Snaps, Chocolate Chips, Trefoils, Peanut Butter Patties or Carmel Delights.
These little boxes of cookies leave our mouths watering for more, and what’s worse, once the season is over you can’t buy another box until the next year when cookie season rolls around again. This drives us to wait and buy them up the next year, and with a minimum of two boxes per person, these little gals are making a “thin mint.”
This once-a-year tactic is genius and keeps the cookies flying from the cute girls’ hands into the hands of hungry adults addicted to these tasty, sweet treats. Would these cookies sell as well if they were sold biannually or all year round? I don’t think so.
The cookies are good and worth every penny paid for them, but if sold more than once a year, people might get sick of the cookies or not feel so compelled to buy them. They are also a bit pricier than the average cookie sold at a grocery store. The Scouts’ cookies are $3 a box, and the quantity in the box is less than store-bought cookies.
But, not buying the cookies would kill a long-standing American tradition. It would kill the scramble to buy the cookies from your favorite niece, a co-worker’s daughter or the girl next door, and that would be tragic.
So, go out and buy a few boxes for yourself, before it is too late. After all, these little capitalists practice this marketing phenomenon only once a year.