Fun with marketing…no matter how boring the product.

December 5, 2012

Filed under: Marketing Strategies, The Power of Persuasion, Observations From the Field — @ 9:23 am

Recently, while leading a workshop about Effective Presentation Techniques, I shared a secret with the attendees: people like to be entertained. So if you bring fun and joy to whatever you’re selling, you’ll get their attention…and that’s the first step toward ensuring they receive your message.

At the break, one attendee approached me with this lament: “I sell pretty boring products, so making them fun just isn’t an option for me.”

Oh young grasshopper…take heart. With the right perspective, you can make ANYTHING fun. I give you…Jewish food, a Vietnamese restaurant, and men’s razors.

Artful arrangement of Jewish food draws a double-take from passersby on the Upper West Side of NYC.

A Viet-Thai restaurant in Canada draws new patrons with this sassy sign outside their front door.

And seriously…take 1 minute and 30 seconds and watch this commercial for Dollar Shave Club. Who knew selling razors could be so entertaining?

The bottom line is…with the right perspective, you can bring a little bit of humor to any subject – appropriately, of course. Would I recommend adding levity to a speech or ad about child abuse? Absolutely not. But an otherwise dry subject – like razor blades? Heck yes!…it’s a fabulous competitive advantage when you can make people smile.

Want one more smile before you’re done reading this post? Check out our post from last summer to see how this movie theater made their “Don’t Talk or Text During the Movie” warning an absolute riot of hilarity: Alamo Drafthouse Warning. The gang here at Redpoint is STILL chuckling over that one. 🙂

Ooops. You broke the spell.

October 26, 2012

Filed under: Observations From the Field, Branding Strategies — @ 7:30 am

Recently, I had a spectacular dining experience at Talula’s Garden in Philadelphia. And I mean…spectacular. From the thoughtful design details – both in the outdoor garden and the main restaurant/bar areas – to the creativity of the menu, each touchpoint makes you feel as if you’ve been transported to a chic urban farmhouse.

The depth of authenticity was impressive, especially to a marketer like me, who can spot a “staged authentic experience” from a mile away. By the time the second course arrived, I had completely turned off my branding radar and lost myself in the enjoyment of the evening. It was heaven…until I went to the bathroom.

Inside each adorable little stall, on the wall behind the toilet, I found this:

…and POP! went the bubble of authenticity. The farmhouse hand towel is a pleasing design detail. The black plastic Please Do Not Remove label…not so much. I felt a little like Dorothy when she went behind the curtain and discovered that the “Great and Powerful Oz” was just an average little man.

What’s the lesson here? If you have to provide instructions for guests in order to maintain your image of authenticity, you’re just breaking the spell. Find another way to achieve your objective that doesn’t undermine the effective branding investment you’ve made elsewhere.

But don’t let this stop you from dining at Talula’s Garden the next time you’re in Philly. You will completely excuse the hand towel label in favor of the absolutely delicious cuisine. And do yourself a favor: order the Dark Chocolate Bacon S’mores. You won’t regret it.

Our motto at Redpoint? Everything is better with bacon. Especially if chocolate is involved too. 🙂

A marketing throwdown: worms, 1…PR professional, 0.

September 20, 2012

Filed under: Observations From the Field, This is Cool — @ 9:30 am

It’s a running joke among my friends and family that I find marketing lessons everywhere I turn. And recently, worms taught me a pretty big one.

I stumbled upon this “Live Bait” vending machine while driving through the Muskoka Lakes region of Ontario, Canada. I wanted a soda. What I got instead was a new perspective.

Worms sold in vending machines? It was like I discovered a new planet. Though I don’t fish, and have absolutely no reason to ever purchase a worm, I thought this idea was the coolest thing ever. Just like the Jetsons! I took pictures, sent them to friends back in NYC (who shared my awe), and enjoyed the rest of my drive with that warm glow marketers get when they feel like they’ve discovered something truly “new.”

Until I got home, and then…Enter: GOOGLE.

Turns out, worms are sold in vending machines all over the world. As are gold bars, live crabs, mashed potatoes with gravy, bicycles, fresh bananas, sneakers, hypodermic needles (scary), eggs, freshly made cupcakes, inflatable inner tubes, and a host of other items that I had never considered vending machine material.

As I perused slide show after slide show of website articles revealing quirky vending machines across the globe, I felt like a dope. I had fallen prey to the cardinal sin of the PR profession: thinking something is NEW when it’s really just NEW TO YOU. How many times have my partner Vickie and I cautioned our clients against this very same PR sin? Shame on me. “A” for enthusiasm… “F” for marketing savvy.

These worms reminded me of two vital rules of marketing:

Google is the greatest tool in a marketer’s toolbox – see if your idea is new, find a unique solution to a problem, discover how other cultures conquer challenges…all in less than 2 seconds and without leaving your desk.
Every new discovery is an opportunity – don’t be surprised if a Redpoint hotel client soon imports an Italian vending machine that prepares pizza from scratch, including freshly kneaded dough.

I’ve been exposed to a lot of quirky stuff in my 20 years as a travel marketer. I know why fish wheels in Alaska are as treasured as Red Sox season tickets in New England, that women in Armenian nightclubs dance with themselves in the mirror to attract the attention of men, and that you can turn a tractor supply store into a bar in rural West Virginia (while still selling tractors) and no one will bat an eye. Each new discovery has fueled my sense of wonder at the world.

But worms sold in vending machines trumps them all. Why? I thought it was so cool, it actually made me want to go fishing…just so I could buy some.

Now THAT’s good marketing. 🙂

How to make an impression on long-time, been-there-done-that customers.

January 24, 2012

Filed under: Customer Service, Marketing Strategies, Observations From the Field — @ 10:16 am

Every Tuesday and Friday, an amazing “wartime Paris meets Bourbon Street” band called The Hot Sardines plays at The Top of The Standard in NYC’s meatpacking district. Along with an ever-growing base of adoring fans, I’ve sat through several of their performances and can sing along with most of their songs. I know when they’re about to sing a capella, when the washboard is making an appearance, when Miss Elizabeth is going to sing in French, and when the tap dancer is preparing to do something amazing. So…I love them with passion…but I can enjoy them on autopilot.

Then one day a few weeks ago, when I was expecting the trumpet player to start blowing that horn, this happened instead:

Your eyes are not deceiving you. He is playing a tea kettle. And every single person in the room was captivated…even us veteran fans.

Mr. Tea Kettle just proved a very important marketing point: you don’t need to spend a lot of money to break through the comfort zone that develops when long-time customers become “used to you.” You CAN spend money to do it, but sometimes, a little creativity is all that’s needed to keep it fresh.

Some examples from the field:

Last year, MAC Cosmetics launched a “Wonder Woman” collection, and the inside of every Mac store paid highly visible homage to the stunning superhero with larger-than-life cutouts, comic books, promotional displays and more. But how to lure people in there to see all the goodies? The Soho store on Spring Street in NYC did something unusual: they painted the outside of the store a bright fire engine red. Think about it…I’m not sure it made a difference to the tourists (who don’t know what the exterior of the store usually looks like) but for all those “sheep” that walk up and down Spring Street each day without giving a thought to their surroundings…that red building was brightly colored lure that drew the eye like a magnet.

In another example – and a little more expensive than a coat of paint, but worth it – a clever marketing tactic was used to promote the premiere of last season’s episodes of Boardwalk Empire. Set in Atlantic City, the show chronicles the life of a political gangster during the 1920’s and 30’s Prohibition era. So…while they could have just done a traditional subway “wrap” (where all the ads in a single subway car focus on the same business…eye catching, but becoming so common that us regular subway riders are even becoming desensitized to THOSE), instead, they used authentic Prohibition-era vintage subway cars to make their point. Imagine standing at your usual subway station with your iPod on or reading your book or juggling your bags…and then THIS pulls up…

For those readers not from NYC…I assure you…today’s subway cars look NOTHING like this.

But just like the tea-kettle-turned-musical-instrument, you don’t need to pay a hefty price to “borrow” vintage transportation equipment from a city transit system in order to get attention. Saltscapes, a yummy restaurant in Nova Scotia, makes an impression every time a customer goes to open the entryway door:

I’m reminded of the childhood game Duck, Duck, Goose. Think about the mindset of a customer walking in the door. They just spent the whole day (week…month…year…) opening doors with “normal” doorknobs. So…normal, normal, normal…small wrought iron Adirondack chair? Definitely noticeable.

It’s actually quite easy – and often inexpensive – to do tasteful things that will impress your loyal customers. You just have to put a little love into your thought process and remember that if you don’t continue to woo them…they may be wooed elsewhere. A sad but true fact in the marketing world.

And in that random way that concepts sometimes collide unexpectedly…what do you get when you cross The Hot Sardines with the vintage subway cars used to promote Boardwalk Empire? You get a KILLER concert. Check out the 1 minute and 30 second clip by clicking here.

Hmmmm. Attention Boardwalk Empire marketing people…when you’re ready to promote the next season, give the Hot Sardines and their tea kettle a call. They’ll take your subway car to the next level…because even though you only did it once, that sucker is already in the been-there-done-that bucket.

Redpoint is a marketing PR firm based in NYC that helps clients make strong positive impressions on even the most desensitized of journalists. And…we LOVE The Hot Sardines.

Choose promotions wisely…they may last for 20 years.

November 9, 2011

Filed under: Marketing Strategies, Observations From the Field — @ 11:37 am

Tell me you wouldn’t wait on line for this. Mmmm.

When Redpoint was hired recently by Nova Scotia Tourism to lead a series of Marketing Boot Camps throughout the province for hospitality professionals, I shamelessly admit that my first thought was: mmmmm, fried pepperoni.

Popular in Atlantic Canada, but shockingly elusive in my hometown of NYC, I had heard about this deliciously indulgent snack (which should probably come with a side of cholesterol medication instead of the traditional honey mustard sauce) and couldn’t wait to try it.

So at 2:30pm on the Saturday afternoon of my stay in Halifax, I finally scored a table at The Maxwell’s Plum (where I saw the coveted item on the menu posted outside)…only to survey my surroundings and wonder if I was going to regret it. Every single empty table was littered with the remains of food & drink, beverage menus were scattered about the floor, and servers were nowhere to be found. Was anyone ever going to clean these tables…or mine, which was free of clutter but so sticky I could actually SEE the residue on the surface?

Suddenly, a waitress appeared out of nowhere and all she said was: “So, are ya havin’ the breakfast then?”

After a quick second thinking how much I adore the “Nova Scotian accent,” which often comes mingled with a crisp Scottish lilt, I realized something: there is “a” breakfast, and I had no idea what it was.

I said no (surely, fried pepperoni can’t be on the breakfast menu, can it?), and asked to see a lunch menu…and man, did that stop her in her tracks! After gaping at me for a moment (and looking pointedly at her watch), she walked away and then came back smiling, with a lunch menu, a glass of water, flatware, a napkin, and a cloth to clean the table. Hooray! I was officially acknowledged as a “real customer!” But what the heck was going on?

Here’s the deal. A few years ago, the pub tried a promotion called the $2 Breakfast: from 11am to 3pm on Saturdays, you get 3 eggs, 5 strips of bacon, toast, and homefries…all for 2 bucks with the purchase of a drink. No one at the pub – not even the manager – could tell me if they ever officially advertised or promoted it…it may have just been word of mouth. But almost from the very first Saturday, the pub was mobbed from exactly 10:59am to 2:59pm, every week, like clockwork. And it’s been that way ever since.

If the goal was to fill tables on previously-slow Saturday afternoons, it was achieved with gusto. I passed the pub several times on my stroll around Halifax before being able to get anywhere near the door, let alone get through the crowds to get a table. But can they really make money on this promotion? The manager’s response:

“Well, a while back, we tried to raise the price to $2.99, and customers had a fit. They kind of stopped coming. So we went back to 2 bucks and the next week, we were packed again.”

Consumer behavior (or “behaviour” since this was Canada, after all) is fascinating. If The Maxwell’s Plum had started their promotion with a $2.99 Breakfast, they would probably still have been packed every Saturday (did you really grasp how much food was on that platter?) and they’d be getting a buck more per person. But they STARTED with the 2 buck price and instantly, that became the “right” of the people. (Footnote: the restaurant was spotless by 3:10pm, which shows that the staff is precisely attuned to the rhythms of these insane Saturday mob scenes.)

I thought about this unreasonable rebellion over 99 cents at 4:30 that same afternoon, when I walked into Your Father’s Moustache, another packed-house pub in Halifax (doesn’t Halifax sound fun?)…but it was packed for different reasons. A fun, funky, groovy blues band – Joe Murphy and the Water Street Blues Band – plays there every Saturday afternoon from 4pm to 8pm, and the crowd of regulars is huge. More than a dozen couples were actually dancing (I’m pretty sure that wasn’t a dance floor, but what the heck, eh?), and drinks and food – at full price – were being consumed like crazy. This has been the routine there for the past 20+ years, and a discount has never been part of the equation. And yet…a packed house.

Did The Maxwell’s Plum or Your Father’s Moustache have any clue when they started those Saturday afternoon promotions that the public was going to latch on to them so tightly, and for so long? Probably not. We all hope that when we try cool promotions, people are going to respond favorably to them…but before you discount too deeply, or lock yourself into something with no end date, just consider how it will impact your financials long term. Just remember, even if you launch something for a “limited time,” you can always extend it if it works. But if you launch it indefinitely and then try to take it away…oh the drama!

There are a few happy endings to this story. 1) Maxwell’s Plum has more than 60 beers on tap, so don’t feel badly for them…they do just fine. 2) The dancers (who welcomed me as a local) at Your Father’s Moustache proved to me that Canadians really are some of the nicest people – and best dance partners – in the world.

And 3)…damn…fried pepperoni is AMAZING.

Want a break at your desk? Check out a tune by Joe Murphy and the Water Street Blues Band by clicking here. Love that killer harmonica, baby.

Marketing strategy post-disaster: No one likes a sore-winner.

August 31, 2011

Filed under: Crisis Communications, Marketing Strategies, Observations From the Field — @ 10:39 am

The corner of Sixth and Spring looked sad on Monday without the Coffee Guys.

On the Monday morning following Hurricane Irene, I committed heresy: I bought coffee from the cart vendor across the street…NOT from My Guys. I had no choice…for the first time in 9 years My Guys weren’t there, and abstaining from coffee seemed a foolish allegiance that would merely leave me thirsty, caffeine-deprived, and yet still unsure of their safety.

So, I crossed the street with a heavy heart…and thus began my lesson in dog-eat-dog, post-hurricane marketing tactics.

This “understudy” vendor was aggressively courting all his newfound customers, and enjoying every moment of it. Kudos to him for recognizing an opportunity (“I no see you here before…happy to meet you”)…and shame on him for crossing the line (“You come here ONLY from now on, yes?…This best coffee in neighborhood, no one else good.”). I walked away with no promises, unsurprised to hear him tell the next woman in line that she is his “prettiest customer of all time,” …as I apparently was just a moment ago.

Later, as I sat at my desk reflecting on the cutthroat nature of the NYC coffee cart vendor industry (and now vowing coffee abstinence until the Guys return), the post-hurricane promotional email blasts from undamaged hotels in the Northeast started piling up in my in-box. And the parallels to Mr. Coffee Understudy’s tactics – but on a much grander scale – were startling.

Essentially, the intended message to consumers was the same: despite the sensational news reports of widespread flooding and damage in the Northeast, our hotel was undamaged and we are open for business this Labor Day weekend and beyond. But the strategies used to actually communicate that message were vastly different…and not one of them reflected well on the image of its hotel. The reason? No one likes a sore winner.

It’s totally understandable that hotels open for business don’t wish to be painted with the same “devastation brush” the media has loosely applied to the Northeast…especially now, when the high occupancy weeks of summer, Labor Day weekend, and fall foliage season make the stakes so high. But if you find your property in this situation, here are some tips for that email blast to prevent you from looking like an uncaring ogre trying to capitalize on others’ misfortune:

Timing: wait until the initial outpouring of sympathy and drama has passed before sending ANY promotional emails out.

Tone: you can’t express believable compassion for the victims alongside a cheerful offer of a “3rd night free with extended pool hours”…the crass jumble of emotions just screams “all’s fair in love and marketing.” Be appropriately respectful and less blatantly promotional.

Humor: does not belong in ANY post-disaster marketing communication. More than one Northeast property created a “Weakend Guest” package or message, which is a clever play on words likely not appreciated by the thousands of people who suffered severely by this storm’s strength.

Incentives: what should your call to action be in this case? True, bookings are always a goal, but given the situation, is this really the right message for this particular promotional blast? Perhaps your first outreach should be clarification of facts – you are open, you sustained no damage, you feel fortunate, and your heart goes out to your less fortunate neighbors.

Grace and Class: being promotional and pushing incentives is bad enough on its own…actually referring to your devastated competitors shows extremely poor taste. Messages along the lines of “Vermont got slammed, but we here in Maine are open for business and the sun has never been brighter!” really cast you as a villain.

You would be smart to anticipate that your current reservations for the next few weeks may be at risk…but the best way to solidify them is to speak directly to those guests. Send them an email, give them a call…whatever. Just give them the facts: their reservation is safe, the roads are open (are they?…provide alternate directions if necessary), and their vacation is ready for their arrival.

After the initial drama of the disaster has subsided, you can always trawl for new customers, just like you always would. Then, at that time, no mention of the disaster is necessary. Just make sure enough time has passed before you start kicking up your cheery tone.

Here in NYC, Redpoint weathered Hurricane Irene unscathed, though we are working round-the-clock on crisis response right alongside some of our Northeast hospitality clients who were less fortunate. We’re delighted to report that overall, our clients are a hearty bunch of New Englanders who gracefully take their licks and are eager to get back in the game.

And now that our Coffee Guys have returned to their corner (safe and sound, thank goodness), the gang here at Redpoint is all fueled up and ready to help them do that.

You can’t find love on a spreadsheet.

June 29, 2011

Filed under: Customer Service, Marketing Strategies, Observations From the Field, Spending Budgets Wisely — @ 9:57 am

(Updated March 2022)

Who doesn’t love free dumplings?

While dining at Buddakan a while back, I ordered the Cantonese spring rolls appetizer and mischievously asked the waiter if I could possibly try one Szechuan pork dumpling…just because I couldn’t decide between the two dishes. He winked conspiratorially at me (which I took as a hopeful yes) and went off to the kitchen.

When the food runner came to the table with my spring rolls and my companion’s tuna tartare, I was a bit disappointed. Did I misconstrue the wink?

But then…the waiter himself appeared at my side, bearing – not one – but an entire plate full of pork dumplings. As he set them in the center of the table, he said: “Enjoy these with my compliments. I know you will want more than one when you taste them.” (side note: he was right)

Now…if you own a restaurant, hotel, or even retail shop, did that story make you cringe? Were you thinking, “Damn. If my staff gave away free stuff to every customer who asked for it, I’d go out of business tomorrow.”

But would you? Let’s do the math.

Buddakan lost out on the $10 or $12 it would have earned from me for the dumplings. But, on the flip side:

I ordered an extra glass of champagne, which I wouldn’t have, sans dumplings ($18)
The following week, I told a friend that story and she went there two weeks later with 6 friends ($200 at the bar…$500 at the table)
A month later, I took an out-of-town guest to Buddakan because I had told her the story and she wanted to try it ($175)

So that $10 or $12 expense turned out to be an investment that earned the restaurant nearly $1,000…and that’s just the ROI I know about. Who knows how many people this positive incident actually drew into Buddakan? When you pay it forward like that, it’s impossible to trace the exponential positive effect on your bottom line.

And there lies the problem the hospitality industry has faced for the past few years.

The pandemic has forced us all to become obsessed with spreadsheets, numbers, and tangible-only spending. If the ROI can’t be traced, tracked, maximized, or guaranteed, we’re not spending that precious dollar. We’ve had to cut staff, cut hours, cut amenities, cut benefits, even close our doors temporarily…all for the sake of making those spreadsheets jive and surviving a brutal phase in the hospitality industry’s life cycle. And guess what inadvertently disappeared with all those cuts? Much of the love, fun, warmth, and graciousness that puts the “hospitable” in hospitality. We can’t translate them into tangible revenue streams on our spreadsheets and so…they simply don’t get factored into our decisions.

Well, friends…it’s time to bring them back. People are tired of hearing “no,” and businesses that de-commoditize their experience with fresh infusions of positivity will attract guests with enviable magnetism. And in this age of social media…when word of mouth is more powerful than ever…creating a pool of evangelists is never a bad thing.

Be inspired by the dumpling incident. Regain your faith in the power of goodwill and invest in finding ways to make your customers feel loved. And if your CFO balks at any modest investments you may make, just add a new line item to your revenue spreadsheet:

The Dumpling Effect: Priceless.

Bok choy and the whole shabang…three lessons in customer service.

May 23, 2011

Filed under: Customer Service, Observations From the Field, Effective Communication — @ 8:39 am

So…is this “A Lot” of bok choy?

Recently, when faced with a choice between Chicken with Mixed Vegetables and Chicken with Your Favorite Vegetables on the menu of a Chinese restaurant, my dad planned to go with his Favorite to ensure the presence of “a lot” of bok choy. But just in case the Mixed version was already loaded with bok choy (why pay the extra five bucks unnecessarily?), he asked the waiter what the difference was between the two dishes.

I then spent the next few minutes giggling behind my menu as my dad and the waiter enjoyed a fantastically nonsensical “Who’s on First” dialogue about Mixed vs. Favorite, and just how much bok choy is “a lot.” Apparently, there is NO difference between the dishes, as long as you order the Mixed version and just specify your vegetables. How intriguing. I’ll take the less expensive dish, please.

The very next week, my brother and sister-in-law went to a restaurant called Vero with a group of friends, where they ordered The Whole Shabang. They had told me about this concept earlier, and as a marketer, I thought it was brilliant. The restaurant serves “little plates” of Italian food, and when you order The Whole Shabang, you get one of every single item on the menu – meats, cheeses, olives, bruschette, pasta, fish, chicken…the works. Priced at $500, it’s a neat idea, and a fabulous marketing hook.

They promote it right on the dinner menu in its own special promotional box, so that when you go with just a few people, you see it and think… “Cool! I’m going to come back with a bunch of friends and do this.” …which is exactly what my bro and sis-in-law did.

Imagine my disappointment when I got the post-Shabang recap and it missed the mark. There was resistance to giving the preferred time when making the reservation, not enough servers to accommodate the size of the group (12), drink delivery was exceptionally slow, they missed serving the entire cheese course (what’s this?…The Partial Shabang?), and a host of other small issues. They thought the food itself was delicious, but when you commit to ordering every single item on the menu, you sort of expect to be treated better, not worse, than the “regular” patrons.

These two back-to-back restaurant issues brought three major customer service lessons to light:

1 – Marketing ploys not embraced by the staff cause confusion and disappointment among your guests. Your staff members are the ones delivering on your promises every day on the front lines. If they don’t get it, don’t like it, or don’t want to do it…you could have the coolest-sounding marketing tactic in the world and it won’t work. Training on these points is essential to success.

2 – Anything that is operationally challenging to deliver puts your guest satisfaction at risk. What was intended to inspire positive word of mouth is likely to have exactly the opposite effect. Why take the risk? Either don’t do it, or wait to promote it until you’ve got the kinks worked out.

3 – Consumers are very literal. You write something down in black-and-white, and they expect exactly that. YOU might know what you mean, but if you’re expecting any forgiveness when they discover it’s a loose interpretation…give up that dream. Be very thoughtful in how you position things…on your menus, your websites, your brochures, and more. Over-promising can come back to haunt you.

I’ll let the bok choy incident go…that “Who’s On First” dialogue is actually part of what makes a visit to a Chinese-American restaurant so affectionately memorable. But I’m not willing to throw in the towel yet on The Whole Shabang. Come on – ordering one of every item on the menu? That’s as fun as the Instant Gourmet Kitchen that Redpoint created to market the Masters Collection from the Culinary Institute of America a few years ago (80 items, 5,000 bucks, 3 clicks on the website to purchase).

Stay tuned. I may just visit Vero (with 9 of my closest friends) and test out The Whole Shabang myself, maybe give them a few pointers along the way.

Or, I could just send in My Coffee Guys to host a training session. Lal and Abdul never let me down. Now THAT’S customer service.

Your mom was right…mind your OWN business.

May 5, 2011

Filed under: Marketing Strategies, Observations From the Field, Spending Budgets Wisely — @ 9:16 am

Remember when you were a little kid and your litany of excuses to get what you wanted included things like…”but Jenny has one” or “but John’s mom lets him do it” or – classic – “every single kid in school owns one but me”…? Your mom’s response was likely some variation of: Don’t worry so much about what Jenny is doing…worry about what YOU’RE doing. Sage advice, mom, and after you repeated it a zillion times during our childhood, most of us embraced at least some part of this philosophy.

But apparently, not the folks who handle the advertising for Tasti D-Lite.

Pinkberry should send Tasti D-Lite a thank-you note for this ad.

I’ve walked past this ad on Varick Street at least a dozen times now, and damn if I didn’t think it was an ad for Pinkberry, the yummy frozen yogurt company. But while waiting to cross the street this morning, I actually read it, and was startled to realize it’s really an ad for Tasti D-Lite, one of Pinkberry’s competitors.

Click on the image to enlarge it and you’ll see what I mean. Let’s ignore for the moment the fact that this ad is obscured by the pole from a street sign. What’s more damaging is that the very first, and biggest, word in the ad is “Pinkberry.” And the logo for Tasti D-Lite is a teeny-tiny thing on the lower right hand corner (right behind the pole, actually…brilliant).

Tasti D-Lite is trying to show why they’re better than Pinkberry, but they forgot that we humans are a bit lazy and hard to engage. So, when glancing at this ad – even every day for 30 days – what will stick in our minds will be the picture of the frozen treat and the word “Pinkberry.” (And why they also decided to make the ad’s background pink will remain a mystery to me forever.)

The lesson here is simple. Don’t spend your money advertising your competitor’s brand. Even including a small mention of them helps raise their brand awareness…and in fact, you could actually be introducing them to consumers who had previously never heard of them.

So the next time you’re tempted to call out one of your competitors in your marketing efforts, just pick up the phone and call your mom for the “don’t worry about what THEY’RE doing…worry about what YOU’RE doing” lecture. Even when it comes to advertising…on this point, Mother Really Does Know Best.

And to all the moms out there…especially our own… the gang here at Redpoint wishes you a very happy mother’s day and a grateful THANKS for all you’ve taught us over the years!

Lesson learned: no more boots at boot camp.

March 28, 2011

Filed under: Observations From the Field, Social Media — @ 12:34 pm

Here they are…the culprits:

The boots that launched a blog post.

I wore these suckers while leading a presentation at a recent Redpoint Marketing Boot Camp, and they caused some hilarity. While pausing momentarily in my front-of-room pacing to answer a question, I crossed one leg in front of the other…and that’s when my boots worked their mischief. The metal hooks of one locked into the finger loop of the other, and voila: I was stuck. (enlarge the photo if you’re curious about the mechanics)

In a split second, I realized that there would be no graceful resolution to this situation. They were hooked tightly, and jiggling them unobtrusively only seemed to make it worse. So, there was nothing for it but to confess to the group, bend dramatically from the waist (thank you, Miss Marianne, for the years of dance training in my youth), and perform the intricate surgery required.

The audience’s laughter was ringing in my ears while I was down there, but I took comfort that they weren’t laughing at ME…they were laughing at what I said:

Guys, can you believe this? My boots just got hooked together and y’all need to give me a minute to get untangled. Note to self: no more boots at boot camp.

Here’s what I learned from this hilarious situation.

1 – If you want to hear God laugh…make a plan. I had this day orchestrated down to the most well-thought-out detail. Boots hooking together did not even make the list of “things to prevent from going wrong.” So, just be ready to take things as they come.

2 – If you are giving a presentation – no matter how “exalted” your authority or expertise is – you’re still just a person. And your boots can get hooked together just like anyone else. Displaying practical humility at all times will enable you to maintain your dignity and authority…even through a dramatic “waist bending moment.”

3 – Social media has changed our culture forever. After getting unhooked, I said to the group…”do me a favor…if that happens again and I go flying while trying to move, please don’t all whip out your video phones and immortalize it on YouTube.” And then someone shouted out “Why? It would get millions of views and you’d be famous!”

And you know what? Damn. She was right. Why didn’t I think of that?

Note to self: wear boots at next boot camp.