Now…I am just NOT that awesome.  Moreover, I have no access to the public, there were only nine people in the Redpoint office yesterday, and I spent most of the day quietly alone, writing at my computer.  So why the outpouring of gratitude?

Because most of the thanks I received were completely inappropriate for the situation.  For example:

• A letter from American Express thanked me as part of a notification that my account may have been the victim of fraud.
• An email from someone shared the unwelcome news that, “Sorry, but we’re not sending you a check this week as we promised,” and was closed with a simple “Thanks,” at the end.
• A woman who cut in front of me in a ladies room to use the hand dryer before I got to it looked at me and sheepishly said “thanks”…as if that somehow excused her behavior.

In fact, the number of times I was legitimately thanked for something yesterday was only 37. All the others were just automatic thanks given without deliberate thought…and therefore, sounded insincere.

The upshot of all this meaningless thanking is that the word “thanks” has lost its punch.  So when you REALLY want to express gratitude for something, “thank you” often doesn’t cut it.

There are ways to be polite and gracious without erroneously using the actual phrase “thanks.”  Here are a few simple tips:

• If you have “Thanks” as part of your automatic email signature…take it out.  Adapt your closing to suit the message, be it “Cheers,” or “Best,” or “Kind Regards,” or “My Best,” or even “Enjoy your day,”…or whatever takes your fancy.
• Embrace the difference between expressing thanks and expressing appreciation.  The person mentioned above who delivered that unwelcome message about the check could have said “Your patience is much appreciated.”  While it’s not a hard and fast rule, “thanking” someone is usually an appropriate response to something they’ve done or said (or not done or said) but essentially, it’s tied to THEM and their actions.  Appreciation is tied to YOU, and how you feel.  You can appreciate someone’s kindness in the same way you can appreciate the beauty of the sunset…but you’d never “thank” the sun for setting.
• Change up your wording.  When you say “thanks” dozens of times each day, it even becomes white noise to YOU.  Try different phrasing:  I can’t thank you enough… thank you doesn’t do it justice… I am so grateful for… your kindness meant the world to me… I’m so appreciative that… and so on.

And here’s a final tip.  It’s not always what you say to express thanks, but how you deliver the message.  I recently ordered flowers from two different florists in the same week.  One thanked me in the automated email confirmation and payment receipt.  And the other sent this to my house:

Way to go Mischler’s of Buffalo.  You’ve given me a new communication puzzle:  what’s the appropriate way to thank someone for sending an awesome thank you note?

See also the related post:  Eight Ways to Apologize Without Saying “I’m Sorry.” 

If I could give this car a hug, I would.

When I stepped up to the Alamo car rental counter last week to pick up a car for a weekend trip, I could have won a gold medal if “Multitasking” were an Olympic sport.  I was schlepping bags, answering emails, planning what to eat for lunch, remembering things I forgot to pack, and just generally unfocused on the task at hand.  I rent cars all the time, and I know the drill, so basically, I put that part of my brain on autopilot – license, credit card, initials in a zillion places, give blood and your first born, and so on.

But when the service agent said these words, all distractions disappeared instantly and I snapped to attention like a guard dog on command:  ”You’re in that tiny little Fiat outside.  Would you like to upgrade to something a bit safer?”

Did I snap to attention because I was worried about my safety?  Absolutely not.  (Mom, if you’re reading this…sorry.)  What happened was…the marketer in me became fiercely indignant on behalf of the Fiat brand.  All distractions were banished by these thoughts:

• Why would a car rental company want to imply that it rents ANY cars that are unsafe?
• Do the Fiat sales and marketing executives – who are probably hopeful that people who rent their car could be hooked into buying one – know that their car is being portrayed as “unsafe” at the car rental counter?
• Does Alamo script their service agents with this language to scare people into upgrading to a more expensive car?  If so…shame on them.  If not…perhaps they need a better training program to educate their team how to “sell up” without “putting down.”

As all these thoughts crowded my brain in the span of 10 seconds, I realized that I was staring at the service agent like she had just committed a heinous crime.  And perhaps she did, from a branding perspective.  But I know that making a fuss about it would probably cast me as an unbalanced lunatic, so I just looked her squarely in the eye and said, “The Fiat is absolutely perfect.  I’ll take it.”

Clearly,  nothing wins my allegiance faster than a marketing underdog.  Fiat, if you’re ever looking for a PR firm in the US, give Redpoint a call.  :)

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.  :)

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.  :)

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.  :)

No one wants to deliver this kind of unwelcome news.  Quite frankly…it sucks, for both the recipient AND the messenger.  But sometimes it’s a necessary evil of doing business, and you’re the unfortunate soul who has to bear the burden.  Here are five tips to mitigate the drama:

1 – Let your own emotions run their course before you have to share the news with others.  You may not like or agree with the news you must deliver, but there is a reason why it must be done.  Find a way to come to terms with it in your own mind so you don’t bring your own negative emotional energy to the communication.  Your audience will take its cue from your approach, and if you’re defensive, nervous, weepy, or angry…it will only fuel their own negative response.

2 – Restrict your build-up and get to the point.  By the time people get through six long paragraphs of posturing and pussyfooting, their BS-radar is on high alert and involuntary butterflies in their stomach are flooding their brain with negative emotion.  So, when you finally hit them with the unpleasant punchline in that last paragraph, their adverse reaction is intensified by the emotions you yourself have nurtured in them.  The same thing holds true for verbal delivery.  Often times, the anticipation is worse than the actual news.

3 – Consider the timing carefully.  Procrastinating often makes it worse (especially if there is a rumor mill in the mix), but rushing to break the news just because YOU want to put it behind you comes with great risk.   A knee-jerk communication is usually delivered with clouded judgment, high emotion, and a lack of due diligence.  Most importantly, think about when this news will best be received.  Bad news is never welcome, but you should consider factors like time of day, day of week, and your audience’s state of mind before you decide on the ideal timing.

4 – Avoid misdirection and trickery.  It’s tempting to load up bad news communication with a bunch of good news in the hopes of distracting your audience.  However, it will only damage their trust in you.  You may choose this path because it makes YOU feel better (“Look, see?  I’m not that bad…look at all the good things I’m still sharing!”) but to the news recipient, it just looks wishy-washy and weak.  And, in many cases, it can give the appearance of trivializing very serious news and not treating it with the respect it deserves.

5 – Remember that nothing is confidential.  Emails can be forwarded, and social media is designed to be the world’s fastest grapevine.  Whatever you do…whatever you say…before you “go there,” answer this question:  how would I feel if 50 million people knew about this tomorrow?  Nothing tames you into acting gracefully like the thought of being vilified by an outraged public.  United Airlines learned this lesson the hard way.  Watch video.

Above all, you must remember this:  no matter how you spin it or when you say it…your audience won’t like it.  That’s why it’s called “bad news.”  It would be completely irrational for you to tell your customers you’re raising prices and have them respond “Right, then…no worries, we don’t mind.”  So, be realistic with yourself.  If you expect to deliver bad news and have people walking away happy…this will not work out well for you.

And that brings us to the last point:  delivering bad news is not about YOU.  The recipient does not want to hear about how you were up all night belly-aching over having this conversation, or that you’re just so upset you can’t eat, or that it gives you no pleasure to do this.  Asking for their empathy at a time like this is most likely to result in their wanting to smack you.  Let them have their moment of sadness without trying to steal some sympathy for yourself.

Note:  Already delivered the bad news and made a mess of things?  Check out the earlier post on redpointspeaks:  Eight Ways to Apologize Without Saying “I’m Sorry.”

You can catch this illness from even the briefest exposure to ANY social media channel, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.  The infection is often triggered by media reports that sensationalize the wildly positive impact of social media as a marketing tool.  Symptoms, which mirror the frenzied fever associated with a gold rush or get-rich-quick-scheme, include:

1. Obsessing over how many fans/followers your brand has vs. other brands in your competitive set
2. Setting arbitrary-yet-super-high fan base targets based on absolutely nothing realistic
3. Spending money to increase your fan base numbers without spending money to sustainably enhance the quality of your messaging content

Interestingly, social media novices are the most susceptible to irrational fan base envy and they also succumb the hardest.  The more immersed you become in marketing through social media, the greater your immunity becomes.  Why?  Because you discover that having a zillion fans does not impact your bottom line unless you engage them…and engaging them takes time and money, just like any other marketing initiative.  And it doesn’t matter if your competitor has triple the number of fans that you have…what matters is how YOU interact with YOURS.

The golden rule of using social media for business is this:  the success of your social media efforts are in direct proportion to the amount of love you put into them.  If you treat social media like a pesky item on your to-do list (“make post to Facebook today…check;  pin something to Pinterest board today…check”), you can’t expect social media to love you back.  It simply doesn’t work that way.

The only cure for irrational fan base envy is to change your thinking.  Stop focusing on QUANTITY and start focusing on BALANCE.  Engage your current fan base, so that a high percentage of them are liking, commenting, sharing, re-tweeting, re-pinning, and in many other ways becoming a messenger for your brand story.  If you achieve that, it means you’re on the right track to harnessing your fans.

Then…as you add more fans to your community…they have the potential to become more than just empty numbers that look good on a stat sheet.  They can become your brand evangelists, returning the love to your bottom line exponentially.

Just remember…as you start to change your thinking and infuse a little more love into your social media efforts…be mindful of the other golden rule, shared by Redpoint in a previous post:  You Can’t Find Love on a Spreadsheet.  Who knew you could learn so much from ordering dumplings at Buddakan?

Picture this:  you’ve spent a fortune on a gorgeous half-the-length-of-a-football-field booth at the largest trade show in your industry.  You haven’t exhibited at this show in years, and you want everyone to know you’re back…and cooler than ever. 

But the booth to your left has celebrity chef Guy Fieri doing a cooking demonstration and book signing in their booth…and the booth to your right has Cat Cora doing the same in theirs…and two aisles down is a “Cooking Theater” with a veritable who’s who of celebrity chef demos…Curtis Stone, Paula Deen, Duff Goldman, Michael Symon, Ming Tsai, and a host of other star chefs performing all day long.  And sadly, you’ve got no celebrity chefs in your marketing arsenal. 

How do you battle such overwhelming star power to make your booth stand out from the pack?  Simple:  do something TOTALLY different.

And when longtime client Robinson Home Products asked us to help them do that at the International Home & Housewares Show in Chicago earlier this month, what’s the first thing we thought of?  The Hot Sardines and their tea-kettle-playing-trumpeter (see earlier post). 

While everyone else had their just-one-of-the-pack superstar chefs hawking their wares in a traditional and expected way, we had a 7-piece vintage dixieland band drawing crowds to the Robinson booth with hot jazz and gunbucket blues…but with a twist.  All of Robinson’s new product introductions were used as musical instruments:  graters, cutting boards, tongs, wooden spoons, spatulas, carving boards, cooling racks, pots, pans, mugs, bowls, collapsible funnels, and more.  If it had the ability to make a sound…it became a part of the performance.

Never in my life have I seen so many double takes, as passers-by stopped to see where the music was coming from, and then went… “wait…is that guy tap dancing on bamboo cutting boards?  And is she playing a cooling rack with a cheese grater?”  Watching the realization sink in was fun.  Watching all the camera phones, iPhones, and Tweets record it – and share it – was immensely satisfying.

And after three sets of music throughout the day in the booth, and one in the Cooking Theater to help spread the word show-wide, the deal was sealed:  Robinson was super-cool and stood WAY out from the crowd.  And all of us working the booth at the show finally understood the power of being able to say that coveted line… “Yeah, I’m ‘with’ the band.”  Instant coolness.

What’s the lesson here?  If you can’t meet your competitors on their turf, and you don’t want to spend the money to one-up them at their own game…don’t play it.  Be creative…and redefine the game.  Celebrity chefs have been a mainstay of the Housewares Show for more than a decade, but NOBODY expected a band.  And that made Robinson unforgettable.

Hats off to The Hot Sardines for embracing this unusual performance request and knocking it out of the park, and you can see them perform seven kitchen-tool-infused songs by clicking here (side note:  Some of These Days is my personal fave).  The level of product integration they incorporated into their music – without compromising the integrity of their addictive sound – was unreal.  They are a group of exceptionally talented musicians and Redpoint feels fortunate to have stumbled upon them at the Lincoln Square Winter’s Eve Festival on the corner of 63rd and Broadway last December.

And…hats off to Robinson as well.  Redpoint has brought some quirky ideas to clients before, but not all of them have the guts to take a marketing risk like this.  But we’ve been working with them since 2005, and in their words “it’s easy to put trust in Redpoint…you’ve never steered us in a wrong direction.”

Awwww.  Warms our little PR hearts, that does.

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. 

Teija’s husband Peter is the chief marketing officer of Rovio, the Finnish company that created the insanely addictive game Angry Birds.  Last week, the couple attended an event at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki to honor the country’s Independence Day.    Here’s what Teija wore:

Now…many media outlets have been crucifying – sometimes affectionately, sometimes cruelly – this “fashion nightmare” since the moment the photo was distributed.  Words used include hideous, ridiculous, the ultimate style sacrifice, and “no one else would be seen dead in this.” 

To all of these stinky-at-the-party journalists and bloggers, I say:  Damn, she sure got YOU.  Here you are wishing to shine the spotlight on what you consider to be her poor taste and yet…you’re shining the spotlight on her.  Do you honestly think she wore this gown because she thought it was high fashion couture or is trying to start a trend?  And had she worn a “normal” gown, would you have run her photo or written a single word about her attendance that night?  Doubt it.  So, basically…you played right into her hands, and I’m sure it’s no coincidence that her husband is the chief marketing officer.  My little branding-and-PR-oriented heart is giving her a huge hug right now.

Think about it.  In a media interview, Teija could have said:

• I love my husband and I am so proud of him
• Finland takes such pride in the creation of Angry Birds that I can wear this dress to the Presidential Palace with honor
• I am playful, and don’t take myself so seriously…just like the whimsy of the Angry Birds game
• My husband doesn’t just “talk the talk” on brand integrity and marketing…as a family, we join forces to “live the brand”

And yet, if she had merely said all of this…who would have cared?  And who would have believed her?  Instead, she wore the dress and she didn’t have to say a word to get her point across.  Brilliant.  That she’s sporting a serious face…not grinning constantly like a mischievous idiot…only increases my respect for her in the branding department.   

Brava, Teija.  The branding enthusiasts of Redpoint think you’re the cat’s meow.  Can’t wait to see what you wear to the company picnic.

Check out this earlier post to see how our friends at the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater showcase THEIR brand integrity when people talk or text during a movie.  Sometimes, good branding makes us crack up.