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Thank you
Lu Su
Toy Wonders, Inc.
www.toywonders.com
201-229-1700
God and the Art of Toy and Diecast Marketing
Thanksgiving is for the LORD
By Lu Su
On the subject of thanksgiving, if God were to ask you, "How did help the alienated, the fatherless and the widowed?" would you have a good answer? In the 5th book of Moses, the children of the LORD are direct to assist these three groups.
About two month ago, I was invited to a dinner arranged by one of the regional chains that we sell. It's one of those RSVP meetings where the vendors are required to attend, wear a tie or dress (I opted for the tie) and pay a sponsorship fee. Actually, attending is optional, but paying the sponsorship fee is not. If one person from your company attends this function, your mandatory sponsorship is in the high four figure range. If you bring a date or a colleague, your sponsorship becomes a five figures. If I read the sponsorship card correctly, I think any additional people that you bring after that gets to attend at a significant discount of $750/person.
Needless to say, I went stag. What an ingenious marketing ploy. Arrange a dinner, get your guests to pay for it, and make a profit for handling the arrangements. Hey, did I tell you? I'm throwing a dinner party. You are all invited. And please........bring your spouse or your significant other. Because of my generosity, I'm going to offer pricing at 50% off -so Bring as many people as you like (I'll save you a drum stick).
There were numerous tables set up throughout the ballroom. Most in attendence were vendors (merchants) that supplied products or services to this particular chain. I'm sure like a wedding, there is much strategic planning that goes on when it comes to the seating arrangements. One obvious no brainer is that you need to keep the Hallmark (greeting cards) team away from the American Greetings crew. Another easy protocol to follow is to keep the Coca Cola and Pepsi representatives at opposite ends of the room. There was much amusement when the Pepsi representative walked up to the Coca Cola representative and offered him a can of Pepsi. "No thanks man, I'm good", was the reply as the Coca Cola guy held up both hands.
I think for a conversation starters, we were direct to introduce ourselves and in ONE sentence explain what their company does. I know why the request for a single sentence description was made. Many of these sales representatives are professional talkers. Given the opportunity, you'll get more than just name, rank and serial number. Some of these salesman will give you their name and then pitch their entire product line, specials and promotions are being offered. And some of the real slick ones will use this opportunity to sell themselves too by delivering a resume' in soliloquies.
A young woman who probably is (or could be) a model went first. She was from a cosmetics company. I'm not 100% sure, but I think she said that she was from Almay Cosmetics. I was unable to locate her business card to confirm this. I think her card got lost inside the wad of twenty dollar bills us toy salesmen always have on us (not).
She gave her name and said, "We make products that make women more beautiful."
The people at the table nodded with approval. Good answer. She kept to the rules. Life was good. I can tell everyone's mind was racing to figure out what to say. As I was contemplating this, a waitress came and placed a salad in front of everyone. I came to the realization that if I were to amortized the sponsorship fee into what I was getting back for the evening (a dinner), the salad set in front of me should have cost me about $3500. The open bar which I got a bottle of beer should have been worth about $1500. Speaking of beer, the Budweiser rep went next. He's actually from a company called Anheuser-Busch, but everyone refers to him as the "Bud Guy". Notice how chauvinistic I must be; I have absolutely no problems remembering Budweiser but have great difficulty recalling the cosmetics company.
The Bud Guy gave his name and his one sentence description was, "We make products that make women more beautiful."
Great laughter erupted. Who would ever think that Budweiser competes directly with the cosmetic companies?
Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimate that the global beauty industry consisting of skin care worth $24 billion; make-up $18 billion; hair-care products $38 billion; and perfumes $15 billion and all 4 categories are expected to grow at the rate of 7% (Wow, why do we continue to sell toys and cars?). Wow, 95 billion just to keep us looking and smelling good. But alcohol is an even bigger category. Americans, without the help of our European or Russian friends, will spend over 115 billion on alcohol this year alone.
Although it probably can be debated on whether or not alcohol and cosmetics can make women more truely more beautiful, all of us should be in agreement that neither alcohol nor cosmetics are items of necessity items to sustain life. If the boat is going down and you have to quickly grab a few items before entering the life boat, alcohol and cosmetics is not going to be high on your priority list (unless you are Ginger from Gilligan's Island). But water is. We must have clean water, and ample amounts of us, for us to thrive. Since I cannot present the material better than these people, please hear them out..
Official website: http://worldvision.org
Official website: http://twestival.com/
Official website: http://charitywater.org
100% of the donations charity: water receives go directly to build wells and other clean water solutions. charity: water's administrative costs are covered by its board and private donors.
What these three organizations may not have conveyed too well is that lack of clean water is the number one killer of children today. Lack of clean water kills more children than war or famine. Every 10 seconds a human being dies from water related diseases that stem from dirty water. 84% of those deaths are children. One out of every six people on earth has difficulties in getting clean water. Do you realize that one toilet flush uses more water than many people have to live on for the entire day? Let's see how well we can thrive if we are only allocated 1.6 liters of dirty water each day -and that's all you have to eat, clean cook, and drink.
The task in drawing and collection water is usually given to women and children. In African, the water source is on average 3.75 miles away from their home/village. Because of their desperate need for water, women and children must leave the protection of their village and face two types of dangers. One comes in the form of four legged animals (i.e. hyenas, lions, wild dogs); these animals have also been known to need water and dislike people and other animals who show up at their watering holes. Also four legged animals sometimes find it easier to hunt two legged animals -especially when food is scarce. But the biggest danger to these women and children are not four legged animals. There is a even more dangerous animal out there. You know, the ones that walk on two legs.
It is not uncommon that women and children get raped by men. Almost all cases occur outside their village. There is a terrible wide spread belief in Africa that one can get rid of the AIDS disease by having sex with someone that does not have AIDS. This in turn makes desperate men seek younger and younger children. Another wide spread danger to women and children is kidnapping by poachers. Again this almost always happen outside their village. Human trafficking continue to rise. After mistreating their captives, most poachers will attempt to sell their captives back to the family or to the highest bidder.
Much sickness, physical and psychological danger could be totally averted if people had access to clean water in or near their village. I want to challenge the readership to do as we were instructed to help the alien, the fatherless, and the widow. This could be accomplished if we we worked together and dig them a well for them.
I also want to challenge you to not simply add it to your big list of things to do and get this Holiday season. A true gift comes from sacrifice.
"But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering." -Genesis 4:4
Realize when Abel gave up from the firstborn in his flock. Abel did NOT know whether or not he would receive additional increases to his flock. I also want to caution God's children in offering a thanksgiving offering that cost them nothing (i.e. an offering that makes no impact or change in their life). Let this particular gift come from subtracting something out of your life. Would you be willing to order water instead of a soda or a beer the next time you go out? Would you be willing to just wear less make up? Would you be willing to put off that purchase so that people who you do not know can have hope for a better life? After all Thanksgiving isn't about us, Thanksgiving is for the LORD.
Sources:
http://water.org/learn-about-the-water-crisis/facts/
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/52984
http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2127/Economics-Alcohol-Tobacco-U-S-ALCOHOL-SALES-CONSUMPTION.html
http://www.makewaypartners.org/african-genocide.html
http://www.catwinternational.org/
