Where's the fun

Have you noticed an increasing number of ads and mentions of toilet paper? The newer ones have silly names like Naked Paper, Who Gives a..., Cheeky Panda. They're brightly coloured and use a fun approach to marketing, often getting lots of engagement on social media. Meanwhile more traditional toilet roll companies like Andrex stick in our minds thanks to the cute puppies. 

All this for a daily essential. Promoting toilet roll doesn't sound like a very exciting job, yet somehow all these companies have managed to put in some fun and an emotional appeal. And it's worked. In the UK we spend £7.44 billion a year on loo roll. We didn't always spend so much. The quilted options, coloured options, eco-friendly options didn't exist before. We could just as easily make do with simpler, cheaper versions. 

What's this got to do with your tourism business? 

I think there are a few things we can learn: 

1. Plenty of people are prepared to spend more money to trade up on something basic - if the marketing is good enough. Massive marketing budgets aren't necessary if you go about it in the right way

2. If loo roll has become fun, why are marketing messages for interesting, lovely, beautiful, enjoyable tourism experiences often so dull, uninspiring or 'samey'? 

Some questions for you:

How does your marketing make people smile? 

What do you do that makes your visitors smile and remember your business? 

What could you do to add a little more fun to your marketing? It could be something very simple.