Nick James

Some years ago, when a shampoo company wanted to increase sales, they asked all their employees to think of a new advertising slogan for one of their leading brand products. But it wasn't a new slogan that was the winning idea. One employee came up with something much better than that.

One of the young lads that entered the staff competition came up with a much simpler idea to sell more shampoo. And it had nothing whatsoever to do with advertising.

His idea was to add just two words of additional text to the directions printed on the reverse of the shampoo bottle. Words that would encourage consumers to use more shampoo ... the words were:

"Use Daily"

The shampoo company executives were astounded by the simplicity -- and zero cost -- of the idea. It was successful beyond their wildest expectations. It increased sales not just of their leading brand - but of all the brands of shampoo they produced.

Rumour has it that the young lad concerned was quickly promoted and ended up making millions of pounds from this single idea.

Moral: Sometimes it doesn't take money or marketing to get people to sell your product. All it takes is creative thinking.