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

64. Making Friends Globally: Using Free Samples to Promote a Book and a Socially Responsible Business

Fair trade—meaning paying suppliers from poor countries fairly for their efforts—is a hot topic in these times of socially responsible businesses. Stacey Edgar's company, Global Girlfriend, is an example of a fair trade company. It is a multimillion dollar company that specializes in handmade, fairly traded, eco-conscious apparel and accessories made by women all over the world. To better tell the story behind Global Girlfriend and bring fair trade practices to life, Edgar wrote a book called Global Girlfriends. The word Girlfriends is plural in part because the book is about the women who supply the products the company sells. Some of these women, from Nepal, appear on the cover of the book.

To promote awareness of the book, Edgar created a book signing invitation postcard that depicts the book on one side, with details about the book signing on the other, and handed them out at professional events. Not unusual, right? But what makes the postcard stand out is that attached to it was one of the fair-trade coin purses sold by Global Girlfriend.

Why It Works

It has synergies on several levels. It's a product sample attached to a printed promotional piece so that people can identify the brand origin. But it also is about using a branded book to create crossover appeal and awareness ...