Englishman Richard Barrow Cadbury (that last name sounds familiar, doesn’t it?) and his younger brother George took over their family’s Chocolate business in 1861 and literally transformed not only the company- but the world of chocolate!
At that time in history, chocolate was something you drank, NOT something you ate. The Cadbury company was a well-known manufacturer of reputable drinking chocolate. When Richard took the helm of the family business, he was determined to be an Innovator.
In an effort to perfect their company’s chocolate making technique, and to improve the taste of their chocolates they began extracting more pure cocoa butter from the cocoa bean. Their innovation worked and they produced a wonderful drinking chocolate, but also an over-abundance of cocoa butter.
As the company produced more and more drinking chocolate Richard and his brother were faced with a dilemma- What to do with all the cocoa butter that was piling up? With astute ingenuity, Richard Cadbury turned his problem into an opportunity! He leveraged this excess cocoa to the company’s advantage by creating “eating chocolate.”
But that’s only part of the story –
In Richard’s day, Valentine’s was already an established tradition dating back to the 5th century. Chaucer had even written about it in his 1375 poem “Parliament of Foules.”
However, before Richard Cadbury came on the scene, Valentine’s Day was typically marked merely by giving sweet or sentimental cards filled with images of hearts and cupids.
Richard Cadbury had a brilliant idea- to create a heart-shaped box, embellished with images of Cupid and filled with his company’s new eating chocolates. He even marketed these boxes as having a dual purpose; Eat the delicious chocolates and reuse the beautifully embellished boxes to hold momentous and such.
The Valentines Chocolate Box was born.
There is no question that Richard Cadbury was an amazing entrepreneur and marketer. He leveraged what he had (an overabundance of cocoa) and turned it into a major stream of income- He also recognized and seized upon a phenomenal marketing opportunity.
You can do the same in your law firm!
While you do not have an overabundance of cocoa butter, you have something just as sweet.
- You have your clients and former clients. Are you taking advantage of this precious resource?
- Are you mining your existing cases for worker’s comp, products liability, or mass tort opportunities?
- Are you leveraging your existing and former client relationships by creating Referral systems – with Client Advisory boards, newsletters, handwritten cards, schwag, and email drip campaigns?
- You have so much potential- a hidden gold mine right in your own firm! You have the ability to transform your business by creating streams of additional cases and income. Are you Taking Action?
- Are you actively looking for Opportunities to grow your law firm?
- For example- there are more Bikers on the road than ever before- Are you taking advantage of this golden marketing opportunity- by joining NAMIL (National Association of Motorcycle Injury Lawyers)– or attending their big upcoming conference in Las Vegas Feb. 23-24, 2022?
- Have you signed up for PILMMA’s 2022 Legal Marketing & Management Association’s SUPER SUMMMIT in New ORLEANS, at the Ritz Carlton, June 27-29, 2022?
- Have you thought about joining a Mastermind group for Law Firm Owners, so you can be inundated with the strategies other successful lawyers are using right now to increase their streams of income and grow their firms?
While you may not be able to create and patent Valentines Chocolates- you can transform your law firm- and increase your Marketing Power and Expertise.
You have the opportunity, and you have the ability. So why not commit to Getting it done in 2022?
Today, as you give or receive Valentine’s chocolates, I hope you will see these chocolates in a whole new light.
Carpe Diem to create your own sweet marketing opportunities!
