I was doing some research yesterday. I wanted to find an old ad. Instead, I found the Bone of the Month Club.
Throughout the 90s, the Bone of the Month Club was advertised with dozens of placements in US magazines and newspapers.
For a yearly membership of $79.95, you or your dog could get a dog treat or toy delivered in the mail, every month.
This got me curious. What other of-the-month-clubs were out there?
Two minutes of research dug up the usual suspects: book, movie, gadget.
But two more minutes dug up real headscratchers:
Potato-of-the-month club (new variety of potato each month)… crossword-puzzles-of-the-month club (gotta catch ’em all)… and a monthly “BoneBox,” which, unlike the Bone of the Month Club, actually delivers mystery animal bones to your door each month.
Right now, I’m also reading about Julien’s, an auction house for the stuff of celebrities, dead and living.
Julien’s auctioned off everything from a lamp made from a taxidermied armadillo and given by Gene Simmons to Cher (price: $4,000) to the Fender guitar Kurt Cobain played in the Smells Like Teen Spirit video (price: $4,000,000).
It turns out there’s a booming market for such celebrity stuff. And often, the more personal, intimate, sticky, slimy, smelly the celebrity item, the more people will pay for it.
Hence my idea for the celebrity-ashtray-of-the-month club.
You might think I’m joking. You’d only be partly right.
There’s a bigger marketing and business point here. I think it applies to everyone who wants to be successful and to do so with minimum stress and work.
I’ll make you a deal right now:
Write in and tell me what you collect. It can be anything. No judgment. From small to big, from formal collecting (stamps, sneakers, silver coins) to informal collecting (copywriting courses, pickup lines, or countries you’ve visited).
In turn, I’ll write you back. And I’ll tell you the bigger point behind my email, and how you can use it to create a longer-lasting, more cash-spewing business.