Marketing and all things related

Let’s say that you are Cold Stone Creamery, an ice-cream maker and franchiser from Scottsdale, Arizona. You realize that world-of-mouth marketing is your strong suit, so how do you crank up the buzz? Well, you might try something novel like telling your franchise outlets to organize Fruitcake Freedom rallies, complete with picket signs. And at these rallies, you tell your customers to turn in their unwanted fruitcakes for a discount on ice cream cake. You encourage your customers to download their own protest posters. (Oh course, it helps if Good Morning America the CBS Early Show cover the protests as well—which they did.) Voila, you have a solid fourth quarter. Your customers love you, and media pundits, smile and shake their heads. Media Post has the scoop on this one, so to speak.