Merchandising

For anyone old enough to remember the 'classic' movie "Space Balls", you get the 'merchandising' reference.

As I placed an order for plastic ice cream scoops with our Hillcrest logo on them, I was reminded of that scene.

There's entire industries devoted to helping you put your logo on everything- pens, mugs, key chains, and yes, even ice cream scoops- under the guise of 'brand management'.

But that's not why we put our logo on an ice cream scoop.  We're doing it as sort of a thank you gift to those who support Hillcrest.  At the end of each quarter, we send out a quarterly contribution statement.  It shows what you've given each quarter and how your current giving benchmarks against your giving through the same period of time the previous year.  And every so often, we like to throw in a 'freebie' with those statements- sort of a fun way to thank our donors.  Last summer we gave those who received the statements free ice cream at B&G Milkyway.  Some statements have included coupons good for free admission to a corn maze or half off the price of the meal served at our business meeting (coincidentally, we had a pretty good turnout for that business meeting!).

So next month, along with the statements, we'll send out the scoops.  Not as a promotional thing, but as a thank you thing.  And hopefully we'll get some weather worthy of using an ice cream scoop!