An Innovative Strategy - Chocolate covered grasshoppers?!

What would your reaction be if you received a Fedex package with a bag of chocolate
covered grasshoppers like this -




and a link to a video? Most likely, our first reaction would be "Why in god's name has someone sent me a chocolate grasshopper?!" More often than not, we would look up the website online to find out more about the company behind this strange gimmick!

That was exactly the response of about 5000 people in the United States of America. The company formerly called GOTVMAIL and rebranded to Grasshopper - an 800 phone number provider, as a part of their rebranding strategy kicked off their campaign with a video targeted at entrepreneurs and small business owners, wherein they believe that "entrepreneurs can change the world."

They then sent their target audience of 5000 influential people (inclusive of influential CEOs, celebrities, bloggers, T.V. Anchors etc) a package of real chocolate covered (dead) grasshoppers with a URL.

This is an example of excellent innovation. While the idea may be revolting to some vegetarians, the Grasshopper campaign was a success in the field of social media and were blogged and tweeted about all over the internet.

While the creative mind-set of the people behind this concept is to be applauded, what is even more commendable is the risk that they underwent going ahead with this strategy. The "chocolate covered grasshopper" campaign could have also resulted in a massive failure considering the fact that the recipients had been sent a dead insect coated with chocolate!

Fortunately, for the company, Grasshoppers, this worked in their favour in terms of gaining the awareness of the company by their target. Keeping aside the fact that the campaign in itself was extremely creative and wacky ; we do not know if the marketing campaign in fact resulted in sales.

Additionally, it is understandable that the grasshoppers were sent to their prospects in order to raise awareness of their company. But if you think about it, the prospects may wonder, in what way are the "chocolate covered grasshoppers" a part of the marketing campaign for entrepreneurs? One lady had written in her blog "Who on earth thinks of entrepreneurs as grasshoppers??!"

Rob May, founder of Lifestream Backup stated - “My theory is that anyone tough enough to eat a grasshopper is tough enough to start their own business.”

here's the company's explanation :



At the end of the day, the viral marketing campaign utilized by "Grasshoppers" enabled their customers to learn their story - that it was a phone system company that cared about entrepreneurs. The real test will be if this re-brand story translates into sales for the company.