The phrase repeating history usually references some bad event, like when the NY Giants fumble away another chance to make the NFL Playoffs.  Not so this time.  History is repeating itself in an amazing way this time driven by Facebook users.

About 15 years ago I attended a DMA ECHO Awards ceremony.  The ECHO award recognizes marketers who use direct response in some innovative way to sell more stuff.  During the evening a little known company that sold inexpensive but unique watches won an award.  You’ve seen their product in display cases in novelty stores.  They have watches for the tennis fan with a tennis ball going round and round on the second hand, and another for those people all out of ideas for Valentine’s Day that featured tiny red hearts that take the place of the numbers on the dial.  Maybe you even own one of these unique creations yourself.

OK, so why the award?  It was the messaging.  It turns out that the company all but sold out their top SKUs.  What was left was 1,000s of watches that no one wanted.  What could they do with watches shaped like a Starfish?  It was years before Sponge Bob’s buddy Patrick the Starfish would raise the profile of starfish everywhere so there was no help there.  The challenge fell to the copywriter who set out to persuade someone to do something they would not otherwise ever do.

The Starfish watch that no-one wanted suddenly appeared on the cover of the next mail piece with copy that read.  “Last chance to own this collectible; once 1,000 are sold they are gone.  This design will not be manufactured again, ever!”  What happened next? Consumers suddenly couldn’t live without the starfish watch.  The risk of being excluded was too great for some to bear.  It sold out and thankfully was never manufactured again.

Here is where history repeats itself, sort of.  A retailer of children’s clothing had poor selling items.  While the watch company created the crafty sales message themselves, our new master marketers put power of persuasion into the hands of their customers.  They used the like feature on Facebook to ask their customers which of the ten items, remember all poor sellers,  they liked best.  The winner was determined by number of likes.  Once the winner was announced the item sold out almost immediately.  In this case consumers were very willing to put their money where their mouths were and buy the best of the worst.  This is a brilliant strategic application of a Facebook feature.  Fashion is about inclusion.  So is Facebook.

I never like to admit that I was “sold” something although I have been sold many things by clever marketers and in many of those cases because I wanted to belong.  That was a controlled environment.  This is different.  Putting the power of persuasion into the hands of customers will surprise us in many ways.  Will one of them inspire the successful return of leisure suits?  If I say I like leisure suits, who will join me?  Don’t laugh.  It could happen.