Visual Marketing: 99 Proven Ways for Small Businesses to Market with Images and Design

45. A Campaign That Really Knocks Your Socks Off: Appealing to Customers' Comfort Evokes Emotion and Differentiates a Commodity Business

The Lorden oil company found a way to get a leg up on the competition with its Knock Off Your Socks visual promotion. Images of extremely colorful socks in loud patterns adorn the company's oil trucks in an integrated campaign that featured print advertising, direct mail, telesales, and e-mail marketing promotions. As a family-owned and -operated business, Lorden has been delivering heating oil to homes in north central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire for more than 70 years. Since consumers have low interest in changing their home heating provider, Todd Baird, vice president of strategy for Phillips Design Group, says he knew his company had to find the emotional connection to compel people to switch.

Why It Works

Homeowners who use oil to heat their homes tend to see fuel delivery as a commodity with little differentiation beyond price. The Lorden platform of “Comfort Made Simple” is expressed with playful sock images and Knock Your Socks Off promotional messaging. Lorden gave new and existing customers a pair of colorful socks. “This was the most successful promotion in the long history of our company. People were calling for socks,” ...