“If you’ve got them, you’ve got light, you’ve got warmth. “Matches have a certain charm,” she says. Aside from coupling matches with the purchase of candles, Red Flower hands out 50,000 matchbooks to customers each year as mementos of the store. The Diamond Match Company promptly purchased Pusey’s patent (he remained Diamond’s attorney for the rest of his life), and in 1894. After suffering a stroke more than a decade ago at age 26, Alkalay recovered and started the company with a newfound appreciation for the everyday. Matchbooks have been around since 1892, when Joshua Pusey patented the idea of paper matches, whose tips were dipped in a solution of sulphur and phosphorus and then stapled to a piece of cardboard. “It hasn’t been Coldplay yet.”) But aside from affordability, what’s the appeal? “Fire speaks so instantly to life,” says Yael Alkalay, founder of Red Flower, a New York bath-and-body company. Juicy Couture has had original designs created to sell in stores, and music venues and bands have started handing matchbooks out in lieu of pricey T-shirt giveaways. Matchbook Wine Company is a family-owned winery tucked away in Northern Californias gently rolling Dunnigan Hills. “People don’t throw matches out like they do business cards.” And at approximately 50¢ apiece, they’re a cost-effective way to market. “We’ve had to reinvent the product, remind people that it’s a promotional tool,” says Alex Nackman, marketing director of Admatch, a 41-year-old matchbook supplier in New York. The fight for a smoke-free America continues - 35 states have some form of a smoking ban - but not everyone can breathe easier.
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