Staples, the world’s leading seller of office products, had launched “That was easy” as its tag line in 2003. This campaign was in response to customer demand for an ‘easy’ shopping experience. The case outlines the background of this campaign and then introduces the campaign itself. It then goes on to narrate how the success of the campaign translated to the launch of the ‘easy’ button, which later became Staples’ fastest selling product and a desktop accessory in the US.

Staples, the world's leading seller of office products with sales of $18.2 bn for fiscal year 2006, had pioneered the office supplies superstore industry when it opened its first store in Brighton, Massachusetts on May 1, 1986. Headquartered at Framingham Massachusetts, Staples catered to both consumers and businesses of all sizes offering office supplies, business machines, technology and services they needed. Throughout most of the company's early period, its American commercials and advertising promotions, employed the slogan "Yeah, we've got that", signifying their wide range of products. This slogan was replaced with "That was easy" tag line in 2003. Expanding on that theme, it launched a series of ads featuring a large red push button marked `easy'. The success of the campaign and customer demand for such buttons triggered the company to manufacture and sell `Easy Buttons' in large numbers. In August 2006, the company announced that it had sold its One Millionth Easy Button.

The origin of Staples, according to the company, could be traced back to an incident when its founder Tom Stemberg (Tom), a former supermarket chain executive, ran out of printer ribbon while printing a business plan. Being the fourth of July (American Independence) weekend, 1985, Tom's regular supplier, a local stationery store, was closed for the holiday. Not able to locate the ribbon even after a long search through various stores, Tom realized the need for a `supermarket' for office products. Ten months later, Staples and a new retail category, the Office Superstore, was born. Tom decided to focus on small businesses who often paid a premium for office supplies as against large companies who could negotiate sizeable discounts with contract stationers. After Staples opened its first store, the concept was well-accepted and nearly 20 competitors launched similar retail concepts over the following two years. Staples' initial customer focus was on price and range of selection. To emphasize this, Staples launched the "Yeah, we've got that" advertising campaign in 1995. In the year 2001, the company faced a spurt in the number of customer complaints, taking the ratio of complaints to compliments to eight to one.

Advertising and Branding Strategies, Ecommerce, Business machines, Market Research, Easy Button campaign, Employment rates, Online advertising, Corporate marketing, Consumer products, Customer research, Corporate culture, Button to Button campaign.