Marketing is constantly evolving, but it doesn’t always evolve in major leaps and bounds. It changes subtly and out of necessity. One such change takes us back to the 1960’s in Japan. A change born from old methods becoming obsolete and new methods sliding into their place.
In the years leading up to the late 1960’s, match boxes were a popular promotional item handed out on the street. Popularity for these match boxes was in decline as lighters became popular and wood stoves were being replaced with gas stoves.
What would be the new technology that slid in to take its place?
Pocket tissues.
Wait, what? I know it’s a little hard to believe, but tissue pack marketing became extremely popular in late 1960’s Japan. They usually had the brand’s logo and name printed on the front. Store employees would stand on the street by the storefront and hand out packages of pocket tissues to passerbys.
How are tissue packs more useful or valuable than a box of matches? You can just get them at any pharmacy! There’s a bit of a cultural and time period disconnect here. Pocket tissues were manufactured specifically for promotional purposes and were not available for sale to the general public. Scarcity creates demand, and the demand for pocket tissues was high.
Pocket tissues weren’t just strong candidates for a promotional product because of the demand. They’re also a promotional product that causes the potential customer to look more than once. You’ll look at the tissues when they’re handed to you, and again each time you use them until they’re empty. Pocket tissues also make it easy to target segments of customers by virtue of how they’re handed out. The employees can target certain demographics accurately. For example, if the tissues are branded for a spa, the employee can target 20-50 year old women. While this is nowhere near as accurate as the digital targeting we have today, the specialized targeting allowed product not to go to waste.
As with match boxes, pocket tissues also began to fade in the early 2000’s. The reasons varied, from being “too bulky” to fit into a purse, being useless at home, to being provided tissues in situations where pocket tissues would be useful. Another possible reason for tissue pack marketing fading away is the amount of products that could perform the functions of tissues. Products like makeup wipes or microfiber cloths for glasses perform secondary tissue functions more effectively.
As time goes on, we’re going to see which new marketing techniques replace tissue pack marketing. We can always take inspiration from molding and adapting old techniques into new ones. If you’re interested in more marketing content, you can read more of my blogs here.
