[ Twin Freaks: Two Unlikely Marketing Success Stories ]

The initial response was not good. Considerable advertising in four test markets yielded only a tepid response. No one wanted to pay for what was essentially scrap paper. The project was on the brink of being killed altogether. It looked like the end of the Post-it note.

In the run-up to Super Bowl XXXIII, Fox ran constant promos for Family Guy, a new animated series debuting after the game. The series premiere was a success, with 22 million viewers tuning in. But after a successful first season, the ratings declined. After Season 3, the show was cancelled.

In a last-ditch effort to save the Post-it, two 3M executives took to the streets of Richmond, then Boise. They cold-called office managers and purchasing agents. They flooded offices with free samples and instructed receptionists and secretaries in their use. They put their product literally in the hands of people who would use them most. Soon Post-its began circulating on memos, reports, and other documents. And when the last Post-it was gone, people didn’t just want more. They needed more.

Two years after the plug was pulled on Family Guy, Cartoon Network began showing syndicated reruns during Adult Swim, its popular late-night programming block. Meanwhile, Fox released the first two seasons in a DVD box set. The result was pure synergy. DVD sales fed off free publicity from the reruns, which in turn converted new TV viewers. Within a month 400,000 copies of the box set had been sold, and the show’s ratings represented a 239 percent increase for Adult Swim.

Today the Post-it has become a staple of the workplace, as integral to document management as...well, staples. According to one Gallup study, the average professional receives 11 messages a day on Post-its. Entire offices are seemingly blanketed in the rainbow-colored squares, and news services heralded the product’s recent 25th anniversary.

Fox is once again running new Family Guy episodes. The series has done the seemingly impossible: it returned after cancellation. The box sets are the all-time best-selling DVDs for a television series. But more importantly, Family Guy’s success helped make an entire industry rethink its business model. These days, a TV program is as much a commercial for its DVD as it is a show in its own right. And this change has sparked a television renaissance, as networks take greater risks with characters and story arcs to win fans.

The success of the Post-it and Family Guyare a testament to the faith of their respective creators. Both Art Fry and Seth MacFarlane’s teams overcame considerable hesitancy at 3M and Fox, and both groups continued to champion products long after they seemed to have failed commercially. They had faith in their products,and they persevered.

But these products’ success is also a testament to the power of identifying the right market. Post-its didn’t jump off the shelf at consumers; instead people had to be trained in their use. Office workers had to be educated into becoming consumers. Likewise, it wasn’t until Family Guy moved to DVD and to the Adult Swim timeslot (to which its teen-and college-age audience is slavishly devoted) that the show found acolytes who would recognize and spread its daring humor and incessant cultural commentary.

Even the best, most innovative product may find itself fighting for survival. Believing in your products will get you halfway there. The other half involves doggedly honing and adapting your marketing until at last you find the right audience – the one that believes as fervently as you do.