Marketing stories

Karl gave me a really nice Moleskine notebook for my birthday. It is lovely and it has a great story about being used by Hemingway and other creative types. I always have notebooks hanging about for writing in so it is a perfect gift and the history behind it is pretty cool. But my curiosity began to be nagged when I read the information inside about how the books had stopped being produced and then a small Milanese printing company began to make them again. It said bits of them were handmade. Really? Was this notebook handmade in Italy? Nowhere on the book did it say where it was made. But it did have a website - moleskine.com. Now I've worked with a couple of Italian companies in the past and websites were not really something they were strong on. Also they usually were .it not .com. Was this really made by a small Milanese printing company?
I looked up the website and sure enough that small Milanese printing company has been purchased by a bigger company with a really boring name. Sure they are designed in Italy but now the handmade bit is in China.
The latest marketing thing is to tell stories about your products makes it more authentic, people buy into the story, etc etc. The problem is when you are just doing it as a marketing technique, it still rings hollow. If you go to this website you read how the handmade bit is done in China but how this is so appropriate because the Chinese invented paper. They know and we know the only reason they are being handmade in China is to keep costs down. Sure it is a book with a lovely history and they are trying hard to market it as that but when it is made by some big comglomerate with a boring name in China - it does take the shine off the lovely back story.
I do still really like the notebook and it is made well but it doesn't matter what marketing technique you use, if the background doesn't back it up, the warm fuzzies are not really generated. Though there is a little thought gathering momentum in the back of my mind. If this was handmade by a small Milanese printing firm - would I have been able to get one outside of Italy? If it wasn't handmade in China - would it have been unaffordable to me?

Free Lollies... well a singular lolly

This "free lolly" sign has appeared outside a shop in my area. It amuses me greatly. Only four words but the last two ruin all hope the first two have, of creating any excitement.
This sign also raises a lot of questions for me. Who was this business targeting with this marketing campaign? If it was those that tend to be drawn to lollies - usually who have a one digit age - will they understand the concept of "conditions apply"?
If it is the parents of this possible target market - they all too well will understand the last two words.
If it is not these people - would you stop for a free lolly?
Especially when the conditions that apply are unclear. Do you need to sing a song? Do you need to purchase more than one lolly (other than the free one)?
So far it hasn't made me stop, though I am kind of tempted just to find out the "conditions". Of course I wouldn't buy anything I would just go and ask for the conditions of getting a free lolly and then decide if it was really worth it. But there is a cafe not so far away that I can get free jet plane lolly on the condition I give them 10c - those aren't bad conditions.