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Sunday, November 13, 2011

Testing the Marketing spiel by giving stuff away

I was being entertained with wine and lovely food one night and being told of the latest weapon for busy mums. The all in one face cream.


I am not really sure what they said, I got side tracked on twitter and also on the words, ‘charities we work with,’ and ‘improvements we have made to reduce greenhouse gases’.




All the bloggers in the room were given the chance to do a large giveaway to ten of their readers, but I am still not sure how my readers like (or dislike) the giveaways I have. There is often very little response to them (this should tell me something).

So I decided to see how true Garnier were in there marketing spiel. I asked them to send me as many of the product boxes that they were happy for me to giveaway to people/organisations that I thought could benefit.

A couple of weeks later and this was the lounge room.

This is flats like where Charlie and Lola live, complete with car ramp.


Initially I wanted to donate all 19 to a woman’s shelter. This has proven a difficult task. Women’s shelters are well protected, for good reason, and they don’t really encourage random people walking up with boxes. I considered dropping them with the section of the police that work with women’s protection, but they are also quite overworked and it is not their job to go handing out my giveaways.

So I looked closer to home, I found a charity that is looking for items to raffle to raise funds and gave them a couple, I took some to my regular family services group, dropped some at a pregnancy support services near me and have given some to another group who have started looking for gifts for families this Christmas, usually the kids get most of them, so now the Mums will get a little something too.

So thank you Garnier. You stood behind the words you uttered in the marketing spiel and have made a difference to a few extra women this week.  It may be a small gift to many, but sometimes that is all you need to change your day.

I should also add, that I only did this as I thought the product was worth giving. I use it, I like it and I will keep using it, especially as I can get it for under fifteen smackers from the supermarket. But I am also fully aware that $15 is a lot when you can barely afford nappies. 

Have you ever found it difficult to give things away?





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15 comments:

  1. Thank you for doing something different with a giveaway opportunity. It's great for us bloggers to see there's more than one way to do it.
    I often don't enter competitions unless it's something I *really* want, I prefer to let someone more deserving to win :)

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  2. I don't enter competitions because I'm the type that never wins anything, so why bother, lol. Good work with the giveaways!

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  3. Well done. And good to see a company be true to their word. Perhaps though they could have thought of donating these boxes themselves to many many people this Christmas?

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  4. Great idea Claire. I am utterly sick of giveaways on blogs (have unsubscribed from those that do it too often) (by too often I mean ... more than once a month!) and that made this idea of yours utterly refreshing - plus it has done much more for the Garnier brand image for me than a giveaway would.

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  5. Well done!! good to see women getting a helping hand at xmas..

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  6. You general soul! That's so awesome that they sent as many as they could. What an honest bunch! I'm glad you were able to find good well-deserving homes for them to go.

    I must confess I haven't done even one giveaway on my blog. Still pondering on whether I want to put my hand up for that sort of thing (opted out of becoming a Kidspot Top 50 blogger for the same reason), but there seems to be other blogs for that purpose, so have kept mine free from promotional stuff.

    Mind you, if a fabulous opportunity came up, I might consider it!

    All the best as you ponder on the same question!

    xx

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  7. What a wonderful thing for you to have done - so happy to hear these have gone to a good home and Garnier stood true to their spiel x

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  8. What a brilliant plan. And it did gave Garnier a chance to prove that they do care. I love their products & hearing about this kind response will def make me love them more.

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  9. That's such a generous thought, Claire. Good on you and Garnier for doing something really genuinely lovely for women who need a little something special in their lives.

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  10. What a lovely thing to do! I only tend to enter blog competitions (or any competitions) if I would really like the prize.
    I do intend on doing giveaways on our blog, but it will be for things like travel books, educational products or tickets to attractions etc, when the time comes, things that people interested in our blog would want or find useful, not just giving away things for the sake of it, I think that's the key to a great giveaway, having products that enhance your blog community and don't just seem like a cheap plug for the product or marketing company? I guess if it fails on our site we'll learn fast and change our minds.
    LOVE what you did with giving the products to those who need it, it always feels so much nicer to help those in need and I'm sure they appreciate it more than you'll ever know x

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  11. That's a beautiful gesture and good on Garnier for coming to the party.

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  12. Love it! Well done.

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  13. Becky from Becky and JamesNovember 14, 2011 at 9:09 PM

    I love that you're doing different things with what you're offered and that you are doing good out in YOUR community. You are a true inspiration, Claire.

    I love the enter comps but generally I have the item or a, doing the same giveaway and the ones I don't have I think I'll come back to(because someone always needs me at the wrong moment) and then I never remember.

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  14. this make my heart melt with joy. what a great idea x

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