Girl Scouts Taste Competitive Edge with Print

It’s no secret: effectively marketing your business takes real effort.

A good marketing mix is all about balance. According to a survey conducted by Pitney Bowes, 76% of small businesses find that their ideal marketing mix is a combination of print and digital communications.

While there’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to the print-to-digital ratio in that mix, a well-thought-out strategy and course of action gives businesses – large or small, established or start up – a crucial competitive edge.

Because no organization is safe from rejection and competition – not even a Girl Scout Troop.

A Sea of Girl Scout Cookies

How many times have you gone shopping from January through March and saw a troop of Girl Scouts working on their cold-call sales techniques with a table full of cookies? Enough times, we’re sure.

This sales approach is new to them, but not to anyone who’s passed by one of these booths before.

While they’re figuring out their selling strategy, many of us are figuring out a way to get past them without making a purchase as soon as we spot them from the parking lot.

An apologetic explanation that we already bought some, an encouraging no-thanks-but-keep-up-the-good-work comment, mumbling something under our breath as we dart a glance in their general direction, or even trying to sneak by unnoticed while staring intently at our cell phone – we’ve all been there.

Troop Turf Competition

On top of the staggering rejection that comes with any sales efforts, Girl Scouts quickly learn that there is tough competition in business. They need to stand out from the teems of other troops competing for their business with cookie sales and turf.

(Did anyone else just visualize an alley full of girls in patch-clad vests about to rumble for turf like a scene from West Side Story? No? Just us?)

A Taste of Competitive Edge

So, what’s a sales-hungry Girl Scout to do?

Adapt.

One Delzer employee’s Girl Scout troop did just that this cookie season and witnessed first-hand the impactful role print plays in a marketing mix.

Morgan, Taylor, Cheyenne, Josie, Gwen, and Gianvanna took their sales and marketing efforts to the next level with large-scale, two-dimensional printed props of their products, resulting in a 48% increase in booth revenue – even selling out of supplies for the first time on one occasion.

It was simple but significant. Don Draper would be so proud.

View the Gallery

Go Big or Go Home

While we can’t say for certain Troop #9473’s surge in sugary sales was entirely thanks to the larger-than-life cookie cutouts from our new equipment, this print marketing strategy undoubtedly gave them a competitive advantage. After all, who could resist such a playfully eye-catching strategy from a group of young entrepreneurial spirits?

Next time your print ideas are just too big to fit within the confines of an 11″x17″ sheet, consider using wide format print to creatively diversify your print marketing strategy and bring some sweet business your way.