On a recent trip to Home Depot, I bumped in a palette of driveway sealer. They were 5 gallon buckets piled around 5 feet high and located near the spackle. The most fascinating aspect about these buckets was their description. It was described as “airport grade”. Now that caught my attention because I don’t believe shoppers at this particular Home Depot have airports in their front or backyards. I don’t even believe that any of them own an airplane! I am also quite certain that even the local, single engine airport, if they ever needed to repair their runways, would probably not send someone to Home Depot to pick up a couple of buckets of this stuff. They’d probably hire a professional road repair contractor. Wouldn’t you think? So what’s up with the “airport grade”?
I then went to the plumbing section and a looped video caught my attention. It showed a person demonstrating how his toilets never get stuffed. The person put 15 golf balls in the toilet and then flushed. Swoosh, all 15 golf balls went straight down the toilet. Quite a feat. It got me thinking though, is there anyone in his or her right mind that plans on flushing golf balls down their toilet? So, what’s the point of showing it?
Mr. Oreck was famous for showing how the suction of his vacuum can hold a bowling ball. Question- does anyone use a vacuum to collect bowling balls?
There is a logical formula for deciding questions in the Talmud called Kal Vachomer (the “ch” in Vachomer is pronounced in the guttural German “ch”). Kal vachomer means deducing the smaller from the greater and the logic goes as follows- If something can accomplish a great feat than surely it can accomplish a smaller one as well.
While in the Talmud, this is no simple matter and is given a full treatise, for marketing purposes, it is really simple. When you show or imply that your product can do much more than anything your customer will ever need it for, they feel secure that it surely do the job they need it to do as well.
Kal Vachomer marketing gives your product so much credibility, it can be the whole basis for your brand and make it quite successful. As a matter of fact, it has made the aformentioned business quite sucessful.
