Cathey Armillas

was born out of the subversive theory that getting companies together with their customers was something more than just getting in front of those customers and yelling at them to buy, buy, buy. What if you gave the sellers and buyers something else to hang out together for? What if they actually liked each other?

Veteran sales people will affirm that their most effective tool is establishing a personal bond with their customers. A bond disarms. It builds trust. It makes the transaction comfortable and even enjoyable. Moreover that relationship outlasts the transaction. So when it’s time for repeat business, the buyer, remembering the fondness he has for the seller, is much more likely to return.

This marketing principle is called Promotion Using Reciprocal Affinity, or PURA. Like cultivating a garden, PURA involves preparing and fertilizing the ground, planting and nurturing the seeds, and enjoying rich harvests. The relationship is mutually beneficial to both the plant and the gardener.

In marketing the “ground” is prepared with a gift. This is a practice going back thousands of years. When one tribe wanted to trade with another, it would offer a gift to another in advance. This establishes Reciprocal Affinity.

Today, in advertising, that offered gift most often comes in the form of entertainment. Make someone laugh, or fascinated, or intrigued and you’ve begun to disarm them. The resistance to sales goes down because you’ve given them something―without any strings attached. They begin to like you, trust you, and want to give your their business. A relationship of Reciprocal Affinity grows. You like each other.

And when you like each other, it’s the beginning (to paraphrase an iconic moment from Casablanca) of a beautiful friendship.

PURA’s mandate is as simple as our creative ideas: get our clients’ customers to love them. All else follows.