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Now that I have started telling you all about my shopping, you
kind of know I love shopping and guess what my favourite store
in Houston is - it is Bath and Body Works. For the rest of the
world who are not blessed with Bath and Body Works let me try to
describe it; my bro calls it a nasty smelling money trap, my
mother enjoys the store but rarely buys anything as they are
expensive, my dad stays out and refuses to come in and check out
things, my husband follows me into the store and for every
single thing I pick-up, he asks, do you really need it, honey?
And I call it heaven on earth, sweet smelling lotions, body
splashes, body butters, foot creams, hand lotions, massage oils,
soaps, candles, it is just bliss! Once inside the store, I am on
a roll, trying out different lotions and trying to decide
whether I want the sun-dried raspberry body lotion or the
moonlight path lotion.
With aromas and fragrances ranging from the
exotic coconut to the cool citrus basil, from the night blooming
jasmine to warm vanilla sugar, it is a tough job to choose
something. Everything smells good and kind of tempts you to buy
more. And during their semi-annual sales events, the place is
like the new
Saravana Stores, crowded and women fighting over the
last few tubes.
And, as I said, I am one of those addicted
women. During my first visit to the store years ago, I just was
overwhelmed by the choice and was wondering what was the
difference between body cream, body lotion, body butter, foot
cream and hand lotion. After all, they are all supposed to
moisturise your skin and I just chose a tube of body cream and
left the store. Today, I use a Midnight Pomegranate body cream,
a sensual jasmine vanilla aromatherapy hand lotion, a relaxing
peppermint and rosemary foot cream, a cucumber melon shower gel
and a wild honeysuckle body splash.
When and how did I change into a B&BW junkie?
Well it just happened, you cannot resist buying the wonderful
bottles and tubes displayed in the store and, of course, to
sweeten the deal, every now and then I get a buy 2 get 2 free or
something like that. And being the gal I am, I end up stocking
up on everything that catches my fancy. (And now you know why my
husband really tries very hard to park the car the other side of
the shopping complex and walk in circles so that I don’t feel
tempted to enter the store!)
This weekend, something happened to set me
thinking about Bath and Body Works and their marketing strategy.
In fact, after the incident, I was quite ashamed by the way I
ended up being addicted to the wonderful fragrances and pretty
bottles, but does that mean I am boycotting B&BWs? Are you
kidding? No way!
Well, let me explain what happened. I just
pulled out a new shower gel bottle from my stock, a pale orange
liquid in a plastic bottle labelled Sparkling Peach in the
backdrop of fresh, lush peaches with a hint of a green leaf and
a perfectly halved peach. A perfect label design, if you ask me!
And I love peaches...it is one of my favourite fruits of summer
and no doubt I picked up that bottle of shower gel for its label
and my fondness for the fruit.
Just out of curiosity and boredom, I just
turned the bottle and started reading the label at the back, it
read, Velvety Georgia peaches glow in a summer orchard. Bright.
Juicy. Vivacious .Perfect, I call it! A few words packing a
punch and I could imagine the cleansing feel of fresh peaches
sliding on my
skin as I showered! And the same curiosity made me continue
reading the label, the next subtitle was Naturally Pampering
Ingredients, Cleansing Papaya and Soothing Aloe Vera! The minute
I read it I literally dropped the bottle! Well, I am really a
papaya-hater, and nothing can compel me to apply mushed up
papaya with a wonderful scent and chemicals on my skin. And I
bet B&BW marketing team realised that many people would prefer
sparkling peaches to yucky papaya and, after all, peaches and
papayas are both orange in colour!
There you go! Marketing is everything; a
simple label is enough to make me go ga-ga over a bottle of
papayas! Yes my husband ended up having a good laugh! And what
did I do with the papaya shower gel? It still is there, and I am
not sure if I’ll use it. I did take a sniff and believe me it
smelled absolutely wonderful, it smelt of peaches and
nectarines! Hmm! It is just the fragrances that make B&BW my
favourite shop! Another marketing victory! After all, didn’t
someone say women are the most powerful economy shapers?
- V
http://poohsden.blogspot.com/
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