The story is very old and may touch upon the boundaries of urban myth. An Arab tried to promote a drug in pharmacies, but with no success. So what did he do? He had his friends go to the pharmacies and ask for that specific drug...
A business must allocate resources among the five basic tools at its disposal (advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, and direct-digital marketing). The distribution of resources depends largely on the use of the push or pull strategy.
What is the push strategy?
In the push strategy, the producer "pushes" the product (mainly through personal selling and promotional activities aimed at intermediaries) through the distribution channel. The goal is to motivate intermediaries to promote it to the final consumer – for example, a hotel or a ferry company would "push" its product by providing commissions to travel agencies or websites hosting offers.
What is the pull strategy?
Conversely, in the pull strategy, the producer tries to directly encourage the final consumer -mainly through advertising and sales promotion- to ask for the product from the intermediary. In the previous example, the hotel would directly address the final consumer, encouraging them to visit travel agencies.
However, we should not forget that in recent years, thanks to technological advancements, things have changed. For example, a Bed & Breakfast can directly appeal to the final buyer through its website or corporate social media, enticing them (e.g., offering discounts or upgrades) to book directly.
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History has taught us that both strategies can be successful, especially if they work in combination. However, often companies that are taking their first steps and are relatively unknown struggle to "push" their products through intermediaries (as happened to the Arab in our story). For example, the inventor of Vaseline initially failed to persuade pharmacists to stock his product.
Or when they do, they don't achieve the desired results (e.g., the first Hoover vacuum cleaners gathered dust in stores as salespeople didn't know how to "sell" such an innovative product).
Therefore, they resort to more radical solutions, such as directly appealing to the consumer. Like Frank Perdue, who when a major retailer refused to stock his chickens, began distributing advertising leaflets and discount coupons to homes, while intensifying advertising in the area, until the retailer gave in and placed his product on the shelves.