What Purple Flamingos Can Teach Us About Marketing

Jeanne Grunert ♦ February 2, 2012 ♦ Leave a Comment

I found a great retail marketing lesson today in a dancing chorus line of purple flamingos suspended on a balcony over the door of a local office supply store.

It happened like this.

I was out for the day in a town I don’t often frequent. One of the people I was with needed an item at the office supply store. I’m shopping for file cabinets, so we made a stop.  She said, “You’re not going to believe this store.”

It’s in a tiny town near my home, a town tourists visit, a town that boasts a Main Street one block wide and the opening of a Dairy Queen is a big deal.  Here on the Main Street was an old bank building, complete with stately Ionic columns and that white and brick bank facade you can spot a mile away.  A big new white sign hung over the old carved lintel proclaiming the bank’s original heritage, but you could still see the old deposit box in the wall on the side of the building.

On the old Southern balcony over the doorway was a chorus line of giant purple flamingos. Dozens of them. Not pink, mind you, but PURPLE, and they were dancing along….and one jaunty fellow had started rappelling down his rope around the stately column…

I was already smiling when I entered the building. Inside, I found not a stodgy selection of paperclips, pencils and paper, but artist supplies, paints, clay and more along with the typical selection of office supplies. Creative kits for children.  And in the bank? The old giant bank vault door propped open. Inside the vault; a space arm telescope that had once actually been in outer space with a sign telling you about it.

Funky.  Great.  I wanted to spend hours browsing the painting supplies…and I don’t paint.  Not one bit.

Here’s what  retailers can learn from the clever entrepreneurs at the office supply store:

• Office supplies denotes a standard marketing image. Look at the major office supply store catalogs and websites.  They all have a stately “pin stripe suit” look to their marketing, don’t they? You don’t think purple flamingos when you think office supplies, do you? Yet this entrepreneur made her store stand out through clever, inexpensive touches.
• Office supply stores often try to compete on price.  Grab any three catalogs or look at any three websites and they’re all vying for lowest price. This entrepreneur wasn’t having any part of that. Instead, she found a way to differentiate her supply store from the major chains by focusing on creative art supplies.  Our local populace loves crafts and has a strong homeschooling movement.  Many of the kits I saw on display near the telescope in the back were science kits; these were ideal for homeschooling market and would help parents create interesting lessons for young learners.  The art supplies also helped distinguish her office supply store from the usual big chain store.
• Lastly, the telescope.  What office supply store has a bank vault inside? And I mean this thing screamed VAULT from the 1920s with a giant porthole brass door and significant locks all over the place.  I wanted to just stare at it anyway.  The telescope offers a funky draw into the BACK of the store. You have to walk past rows of modeling clay, paints begging to be purchased, colorful garden flags, posterboard and painting canvases of all kinds and yes….

Paperclips.

Pencils.

Staples.

And what do you think someone is going to do? Walk past the interesting selection of greeting cards, crafting supplies and pushpins and not buy anything?

The purple flamingos alone were worth a few shekels to me.  Just to make me smile.

Marketing lesson learned: no matter what your product, what your location, you can make it stand out.  I don’t think they spent a fortune on the decor, and I think they got an old bank building for a song.  Because after all, what the heck can you do with a store that’s half…vault?

Plenty.

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(C) 2012 by Jeanne Grunert/Grunert Family Holdings Inc.  All rights reserved.