Promo Wednesday: Eye Candies

Every Wednesday I mention Subject Lines that had me at hello, and the ones that went to my bin before you could say Jack Robinson.

This week I dived deep into:

• Eye Candy: Shop Vivids 

   

• Go on and glow 

   

• Time to invest: the winter coat edit 

   

• Trick-or-Treatment- 5$ travel sizes! 

   

• Choose Your Promotion 

I really like how winter slowly comes into the lines. Not the cold, grey, boring winter but the glowing, vibrant, warm one where you are in control to choose what you want. Yay.

Now, the most overused and banal lines around were:

• Spooky Sale – 25% off All Orders – Ends Tonight  

  (Never ending Halloween offers flooded my inbox - I wish marketers would have come up with a bit more innovative and catchy lines...) 

• Last chance! Up to 70% off ends midnight

  (And this one...)

• Hurry! Up to 50% off 

  (And one more!...plus 50 not included here) 

• Are you thinking about Christmas yet? You should be…  

  (Christmas pressure is getting stronger and bolder!) 

• Looking for latest styles in Clothing? Check out New Arrivals  

  (Simple line but oh so 90's!) 

That's it for now.

I can't wait to know, which emails tickled you pink this week? Share in the comments or Tweet Me!

Tuesday In India: Only Read When You Eat

For me, it feels silly to talk about food unless I’m trying to sell it.

I don’t like to splash my saliva around imagining food. I rather sit and eat. And please don’t be misguided by tiny me - I eat a lot.

 Cooking Mess: making potato pancakes for my Indian colleagues

Tearful and disappointing - that's how I could describe my first Indian food experience. It’s funny to remember but it was simple rice and vegetables that tricked me the very first time. I mean, it was just that - rice and vegetables but beautifully mixed with masala and fried chilli pieces. My poor stomach (previously befriended by salt and pepper only) couldn’t take it without whining and moaning. And gulping a bucket of water after a spoonful bite...

Alert: danger in the plate 

Then, step by step, it got better. My stomach became more open to tasting experiences. Eventually, after months of back and forth… Love was light ignited. I became a real fan of Indian food experience. And that’s exactly what I mean.

Not only food in the plate matters. But experience. Sitting with people, chatting, sharing food, having hands busy tearing rotis, chapattis, naans, mixing in some onions with a drop of lemon juice, dipping into incredibly flavored gravies and sauces and chutneys...

If you still aren't seduced, check my Top 9 Favorites and open your mouth wider for new exciting flavors:

1. Pav bhaji - one of the most popular snacks in India as well as one of the most sinful bites to your belly (as pav is usually buttered on all sides). Pav means bread and Bhaji in Marathi means vegetable dish. One of the best pav bhajis I’ve ever had was in a little restaurant in Pune where I actually had to wait for over 45 minutes to get a seat. Indians love this snack! 

2. Vada pav is native to my beloved Maharashtra. In few words, it’s a very simple Indian burger consisting of fried potato sandwiched between two slices of a pav (bread). Easy and filling!

 Smiling Eyes: vada pav seller at the station

3. Momos – it’s a type of dumpling served with red spicy sauce. I’ve tried so many momos places and the best ones, surprise surprise, were cooked by simple street vendors in Pune. Of course I first made tens of my friends eat there before I risked with my own spoiled European stomach.

4. Masala Dosa – the first Indian dish I started eating religiously. Masala Dosa is basically a fermented pancake stuffed with spiced potatoes, usually served with white coconut and red vegetable chutneys. If you don’t take my words for granted, listen to CNN Go that listed masala dosa on World's 50 Most Delicious Foods in 2011.

Mouth watering masala dosa

5. Palak paneer - a dish made from spinach and paneer - Indian version of cottage cheese. I love its creamy rich texture and beautiful green colour. It also makes me feel like I'm eating spoons of health and wellness.

6. Butter Chicken – marinated chicken cooked in a special sauce made from butter, tomato puree and various spices. Once I got myself involved in my own experiment where I ate butter chicken every single day for a week, and still couldn’t get enough of it. Says a lot!

7. Bhindi Bhaji or Bhindi Sabzi – a very popular Indian dish, easily made and yummilicious. It’s basically fried okra (or lady fingers) in a dry curry. A very popular choice on my lunch menu.

8. Aloo tikki chole chaat – the best Indian snack for me! Made with spiced potato patties, chutneys, chola masala, onions and special sauces, it stimulates your tasting buds in a very interesting way.

 Find Of The Year: aloo tikki chole chaat

9. Baingan Bharta - primarily made from a smoked eggplant mashed with vegetables and some masala. I love its soft texture and special smoky smell; goes very well with rotis as well as rice.

Eventually, you might also want to know that I call myself an Indian food pro without a degree because:

 • I eat with hands like dogs bark
 • I can cook half of these dishes myself (without Youtube's help!)
 • I know where to find Masala Dabba (container for spices) and how to use it
 • I don’t cry after chilli dishes (only sweat!)
 • I eat onions with my food like it’s tomato sauce.

P.S. Did you cry when you had your first Indian dish? Share with me your Indian food experiences, I’d love to hear I'm not alone.

Research Friday: Give Them Discount Not Bonus Pack?

I have been a passionate lover of research, experiments and statistics since my University years. This feeling has been patiently pampered and nurtured wherever I stepped in, be it a tiny meditation center in India or a gigantic corporate in London. That's why every Friday I want to open this half-filled jar and share with you some of my favorite findings and investigations from around the world. Most of the time you'll be able to apply the results in your own marketing activities. Sometimes it'll work as a stimulus to smile or frown. Never will it waste your time. And that's what we want, right?

When Will You Use This? 

Creating your promotions, planning discounts and bonus products.

What’s The Bright Star In Dead Night Here? 

Research* found that people prefer price discount to bonus pack for a vice good, but select bonus pack instead of price discount for a virtue good. While both of these purchases offer savings to a consumer, the final explanation comes down to... inner justification.

Scientists say that people feel greater inner conflict when buying a vice good, naturally, they need to justify it somehow. In this place, a price discount is perceived as a better option, offering reduced losses and 'saving' from over-consumption of ‘bad stuff’. Getting a bonus pack would mean getting more of vice goods, and how would you explain that to...well, yourself?

On the contrary, as people don’t feel guilty about consuming virtue goods, they perceive a bonus as additional gain of ‘good stuff’ and prefer it over price discount. We like our consciousness calm and guiltless, right?

My Personal Example As Consumer

Every time in a supermarket, I pass this huge fridge of colorful ice cream packs on my way to the counter. Sometimes they have these stickies with 30% discount offers on a pack and more often than not I go for it. Every time I do, I find myself thinking (I became really good at introspection!) – “Well, it’s bad for me and my curves, so unhealthy, I’ll have to burn so many calories after that la la la… but I’m getting it much cheaper and it’s just a onetime treat anyways.” Pack in my cart!

 Few times while passing that same fridge of ice cream I had seen another offer: “Buy a pack of ice cream and get an ice cream bar for free”. Scratching my seduced head, I was thinking – “Oh my, I want it. But then - no way. I know myself. I’ll eat that ice cream pack like a happy piggy and then I’ll also eat the ice cream bar. Big time - pig time. No way I can see myself feeling all right and shameless and sleeping peacefully at night after that mountain of sinful sugar." You guessed it right – I reached the counter without ice cream in my cart.

Addition to Your Bag of Tricks

• Offer a price discount for a vice good (the one that provides strong immediate gratification but isn't very healthy). 
• Offer a bonus pack for a virtue good (the one that offer weak immediate gratification but leads to long-term benefits) . 
• Keep experimenting to find better variations (because they are there!).

Have a funky Friday!

* Arul Mishra & Himanshu Mishra (2011). The Influence of Price Discount versus Bonus Pack on the Preference for Virtue and Vice Foods. Journal of Marketing Research. Thanks for the material!

 
P.S. When you’re done reading, I’d love for you to share your experience about price discounts and bonuses. Leave a comment or Tweet me, let's chat!

P.P.S. Need some help on creating your Promotional Campaign? Let's do this together.

Promo Wednesday: Subject Lines

Promotional marketing emails can be interesting (5%).

Promotional marketing emails can be annoying (75%).

They can be uncomfortable (7%).

They can go directly to your spam folder and you’ll never know (8%).

They can fall into multiple categories (5%).

 

I'm often irritated by predictable, unimaginative Subject Lines which make me sad about subscribing to those emails in the first place. And sometimes I'm honestly captivated by novel, unusual lines which make me want to hear more. To read, click and play.

I’m subscribed to more than 50 different newsletters, from tiny companies to world-famous gigantic brands.

Every Wednesday I'll mention the Subject Lines that had me at hello, and the ones that went to my bin before you could say Jack Robinson.

So...This week I opened my eyes wider when I saw:

• Why can't this guy find a girlfriend? 

   

• Ask Me Anything 

   

• I was scared to death... 

   

• The busy girl's guide to beauty treats 

   

• A Sneaky Peak At Christmas 

I found myself being very reactive to a more personal tone, and a subject line which doesn't immediately shout about special product or limited offer. Subject Line which takes time to intrigue me and guide inside the email.

Or is currently interesting to me because offers a solution because I am busy and I still want to be beautiful.

Also I opened my first email about Christmas (coming so late - it's the end of October already!) just for the sake of that special occasion.

Now, the most overused and banal lines around were:

• Don’t miss out our bestsellers!  

  (Why should it matter to me what sells best for you? It’s a pure peer pressure and most people are smart enough to recognize it.) 

• An exclusive new shade

  (Sometimes I'm just in this humanly mood for something simple, common and casual, please?) 

• Offer extended!  

  (Oh wow! Just I haven’t been intrigued by the Original Offer anyways...) 

• Mastering Monochrome 

  (Monochrome trend is around for over half a year now.. And by now, I feel I’m almost an expert myself!) 

• End Today!  

  (and oh, thanks God!) 

That's it for now.

I can't wait to know, which emails tickled you pink this week? Share in the comments or Tweet Me! 

P.S. Want some help on creating your Subject Lines? Let's do this.

Tuesday In India: Why Oh So Silent?

You will be surprised to know how surprised I was that I was never able to verbalize it.. To let it out. To share it on the paper.

It was like heavy, undigested meat stuck in my stomach.

Like a mucus ball glued in the end of my throat in the morning shower.

Like a tiny needle in a huge pillow full of feathers. You know it's there and you can't sleep.

I was living only that moment, only today, and today was never shared. Not even tomorrow.

You wouldn't believe it.

I lived in India for almost 3 years and I have never written a word on it.

Not a word on that experience which was maddeningly moody, extraordinary wonderful, sometimes haunting till tears or diarrhea and…oh so very different.

For a person who prefers texting instead of calling, it’s rather weird.

For a person who is a pure copywriter at heart, it’s unforgivable.

But this flood is starting to come out.

Sparkling, muddy, uncontrollable water of memories, ideas, adventures will flood me and you every Tuesday.

Otherwise, I'll be haunted forever. My Muse said so. She actually Tweeted Me.

Me On Writing: The Young and The Restless

Writing is my shaking ladder to survival.

I went through poetry, haiku and short novels in my early teens to marketing and public relations in my official adulthood, and I never stopped admiring the absolute and eternal power of Word.

Writing to me is like stretching your back in the morning. Unavoidable.

Like banging the ball into the ceiling when neighbors are arguing upstairs. Totally ordinary.

Like turning around to look at the passer-by to find him already staring back. Bewildering magic.

I love writing.

Like reading before sleep. Like dancing when no one's watching. Like eating an apple with one hand. Like kissing my boyfriend’s eyelashes.

It’s all about this passionately growing feeling.

Is it mutual?

Muse, stay close and keep breathing on my neck. It thrills me till matchless madness.