Humor in Marketing that gets them talking

A buddy of mine, Rob Grant, sent me this email from a micro-brewery (Rogue Brewing) that has a wonderful marketing program that gets their client base involved (evangelists) and talking about your business to everyone.

Marketing Letter

Now you can sign up!

So, I ended up going to their website and signing up to get my own Rogue Nation Passport. I love marketing merchandise like this. . .and you know I will show all my friends and clients! 

Smart group. If I were going to work for someone, this would be one of the creative places that I would put my heart & soul into.

 © 2011 Michael Johnson - Inkspot Graphics. All rights reserved.

I just received the newest "Iheartlogos" book in the mail yesterday. Amazing quality and you know how I am with the sensory marketing. The cover is made with this fine smooth paper - I love it.

 © 2011 Michael Johnson - Inkspot Graphics. All rights reserved.

Inside it has over 200 pages of quality logos that they have a competition on their website for the best of 2010. Entrants pay $10.00 per submission. It is well done & I would highly recommend it.

Nothing better than using another's client's service for another client.

A great example of this is during Christmas time when my wife, Paula wants to buy gifts . . . I encourage her to use our family as a source first. She has a cousin, Leslie O'Connor that has a business making custom jewelry (Wild Iris). My younger brother, Jimmy Johnson has an organic berry farm and makes jams, syrups & vinegarettes (Johnson Berry Farm).

I received an email from a new client the week before Christmas. Mary worked for Inland Environment Resources (IER) in Spokane, WA. She told me in her email that Terry Campbell of Central Washington Refrigeration referred her to contact me about getting some trade show marketing merchandise. 

IER was going to have a booth at the Northwest Food Processors show in Portland, OR. on January 17th, 2011. I said that the timeline maybe a tight but because the printing was done in the Midwest we would have rush shipping charges. Mary said that that would not be a problem.

The next issue is that I would need to look at their logo.

After she sent it to me, I knew that there would be a problem with the globe (jpg) in their logo. I tried to convince her that the graphic would work better if we replaced the globe with a solid drop of water. By doing that I could save them money by silk screening the table cloth rather than digitally printing the front and have it sewn to the rest of the blue dyed fabric. I created a comparison to help explain the process (see below). She told me that the owner was happy with their logo and didn't want to change it. I said that it would be no problem for me to recreate their logo.

Photos are always going to be a concern when enlargening and printing.

  Unfortunately, they did not own (or have rights to the photo) the photo. I did some research and located the globe. I explained to her about photography usage rights and purchased a larger file size to work with the dye sublimination printing.

I called and talked to my vendor in Chicago and told him about the timeline. He said that it could all be done (with a little luck). I am always a little nervous about having tight deadlines because there is no room for mistakes. But I gambled for my new client and when I got the package from Chicago I was delightfully pleased with the quality of work that they made for my client. I met with one of IEP's partners (Pete) on Sunday at 2:00pm in my office. He was grateful for me conveniently meeting him on a weekend. And when I got back to the office to look at my emails on Monday morning, I received an email from Mary.

Thank you so much for everything. You have gone above and beyond terrific customer service. If the opportunity arises I will definitely refer any business to you.

Mary

I can only tell you that words like these are my inspiration and the magic words that I strive for to make me better than my competitors.

This one is from my buddy, Bobby Alverts.

"Taking action on a good plan today is better than going to be working on a perfect plan tomorrow!"

Something I will be telling my grandkids, someday.

WHIFF!

I just finished a book by C. Russell Brumfield called Whiff! It is basically about the use of scent to trigger and enhance customers' emotions, perceptions, and brand loyalty resulting in increased sales. He is world renown and gives insider tips on how to use this technology to get a step on the competition.

One of the tips that he shares:

"When scent scripting a product or brand, you need to know two things: What's happening in your story line? And what actually happens when the consumer encounters your product, opens it, or uses it? Here is the simple formula that you will be able to attract and hold the attention of your target audience. . .Anticipation, Progression and Surprise (APS). Anticipation builds emotion. Progression keeps it coming. Surprise triggers a rush of adrenaline."

A good example of this is the holiday, Christmas. The smells of baking treats, the tree, visit to Santa Claus, presents wrapped under the Christmas tree, and the family dinner. All are triggers to the anticipation of the wonderful day.

Bob Farrell from Farrell's Ice Cream Parlours is the King of Customer Service!