Some wily entrepreneur in the Old West understood marketing.
This coffee bean supplier wanted to make his beans stand out among the grizzled cowboys and settlers who swarmed up the cattle trails and carved out the west.
He made and sold Arbuckles’ coffee, one of the few luxuries afforded denizens of the frontier. It was bold and strong, just like the folks who brewed it in a tin pot over an open fire. But what made it stand out and become iconic?
He shoved a single stick of peppermint into each bag.
Imagine the impact that had on a lone camper. After a day fraught with avoiding grizzlies and gathering buffalo chips, to open a bag of fresh coffee beans and pull out a stick of sweet peppermint. All sweets were rare in that unsettled land, and a pull of peppermint must have satisfied all out of proportion to the cost of ingredients.
You can be darn sure the next time that cowboy moseyed into Drucker’s General Store in Hooterville to resupply, he remembered to buy the coffee with the candy inside.
In the same way, this phenomenon of putting free things inside other things influenced what we purchased as kids down at the Grab & Go. The most famous example is Cracker Jack. Who doesn’t remember diving into that box of caramel covered corn and peanuts, and pulling out a cheap toy? It might have been a plastic ring or a wash-off tattoo, but it made the day of any kid just off the farm.
For awhile we found surprises in many food stuffs. Cereal boxes would contain baseball cards. The back of every box carried a puzzle or riddle or maze. One even had a real 45 rpm record you cut out and actually played on a turntable.
How many readers remember Dolly Parton giving away free towels in boxes of detergent? I thought it was a fever dream until I looked up old commercials on the Tube. I was right. As a kid playing on the living room floor, I had heard commercials on The Porter Wagoner Show where the country singer and Dolly shilled for Breeze Detergent, the laundry room miracle that came with a free towel in every box. Duz Detergent came with free cups and plates. Collect the entire set! If you doubt the effectiveness of such strange marketing combos, just consider it stuck inside this brain decades later.
Even a chunk of Bazooka Joe bubble gum (the one whose mascot was a tow-headed boy who’d lost an eye at age 12) came with a 4-panel color comic inside the wrapper.
The free stuff evolved into more elaborate schemes. Packs of cigarettes came with coupons that could be redeemed for branded apparel. The peak of this trend was S&H Green Stamps, where moms and dads brought home sheets of the stamps from the grocery stores and gas stations for us to dutifully stick into coupon books. When you had a sufficient stack, you could exchange them for a toaster or welcome mat.
This “something for nothing” idea was not limited to nickel candy. When I worked at an ad agency, I was astonished that a client who built homes had us make up ads that promised a free pair of cowboy boots for every customer. He told us it was surprising how many people would close the deal on a six-figure purchase based on a gift of free footwear.
Alas, today’s manufacturers no longer include extra things in other things.
But you can still buy Arbuckles’ coffee. And it still includes a stick of peppermint.