Stan Phelp's Blog

The Goldfish Chronicles

Sharing insights on customer experience, employee engagement, and brand strategy.

Cupcake Kismet

A tale of Cupcake Kismet. Five years ago I had the honor of being the Event Director for AMA Triangle‘s High Five Conference. One of our five keynotes was Johnny Earle of the iconic t-shirt brand Johnny Cupcakes.

Johnny’s success is one-third design and two-thirds brand experience. Johnny realizes that a T-shirt at the end of the day is just a T-shirt. People aren’t just looking for a product, they are looking for an interaction. It’s about developing a brand that goes beyond a transaction to an experience. Johnny believes the little things can make the biggest difference.

Back to High Five, Johnny arrived at the conference about two and a half hours before he was scheduled to speak. Instead of holing up in the green room, Johnny was keen to walk around the event. While walking through the trade show area he said hello to fellow speaker Aaron James Draplin and met Brand Fuel, Inc. co-founder Danny Rosin.

Danny mentioned to Johnny that he had visited a nearby bakery named Bittersweet in Raleigh earlier that morning. He said the entire staff wore Johnny Cupcakes products. It was the de facto staff uniform. Danny suggested to Johnny that he pop by to say “hello” to surprise and delight his fans.

What happened next?

Johnny thought about it for a second and promptly took out his cellphone. “Why don’t we invite them to the conference to hear me speak?”

A minute later Johnny was on the phone with owner Kim Hammer.

Fifteen minutes later Kim and the crew closed Bittersweet and arrived at The Sheraton Raleigh Hotel. They were provided passes to the event and escorted backstage to meet Johnny. After a cupcake and conversation, Johnny took the stage to give his keynote on “Why the Little Things Yield Big Results.” He took time during the talk to recognize the crew from Bittersweet.

Here is a three-minute video from Tee Hamilton at Creative Alchemy about the encounter: https://vimeo.com/121635006

According to John C. Maxwell, “People in life don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” One of main takeaways from Spike Jones during the conference was this, “If you want raving fans, you need to be fans of your fans.” Embrace the opportunities like Johnny did to truly connect. Sometimes it takes just a little kismet to open the door.

[Tee Hamilton, the brilliant creative who put together the video above, passed away this past week after battling cancer. RIP Tee]

Billy to Yogi: “PREPARE TWO ENVELOPES”

In 1983, George Steinbrenner fired Billy Martin and offered Yogi Berra the job to be the Yankees manager. As Yogi considered taking the job he reached out to his old teammate Martin for advice. Billy had just been fired for the third time by Steinbrenner.

As the story goes, Billy consoled, “Don’t worry Yogi. I’ve got you covered. I’ve left two envelopes in the desk in the managers office.” Yogi accepted the job.

The 1984 season for the Yankees got off to a strong start. But in late May then the team went on a slide and starting losing. The press was questioning Yogi’s managerial moves and Steinbrenner was angry.

After a tough loss to the Red Sox, Yogi remembered what Billy Martin said. He sat in his office after the game and opened the first envelope. The advice by Martin on a small piece of paper was only four words . . .

BLAME EVERYTHING ON ME

Berra headed to the post-game press conference and laid it on thick. Martin this, Martin that. And it worked perfectly. The team rebounded and began winning again.

But, in August, the team began losing again. Yogi was once again on the hot seat. Steinbrenner was fuming.

Dejected, Yogi remembered Billy. He ran to his office and opened the second envelope. This advice was a mere three words . . .

PREPARE TWO ENVELOPES

TalktoSanta.com

In 2014, Paul Olson created TalktoSanta.com. It’s a unique and memorable service where you can arrange an online video call or receive a video message from the big fella. This could be a brilliant gift idea for companies to give to their team members.

It’s a simple four-step process:

1. Parents sign up their child. They pick a date and time, tell a little about the child, and invite grandparents/relatives to watch.

2. The system pings everyone prior to the call via text or email.
Everyone signs into the call. There’s no need to download any software. If there’s an issue, TalktoSanta.com has elves on the support line to help everyone.

3. When the call time comes, Santa magically appears in the call. Everyone sees him, the child, and other thumbnails of family on the call.

4. Santa sees the child and the thumbnails, but he also has a note sheet that has been filled out by the parents during signup. So Santa knows if he or she’s been naughty or nice.

Paul shared to me, “It truly is magical, safe, and a lot of fun. We actually have about 600 Santa’s who have been vetted, so we can scale to meet the needs of a large company.”

Ho-Ho-Ho. What a unique, memorable, and high-quality holiday gift for employees.

“You never sausage a place. You are always a wiener at Pedro’s!”

“You never sausage a place. You are always a wiener at Pedro’s!” There are only 3 types of people in this world. Those that don’t recognize this as a billboard for South of the Border . . . and those that can’t count.

Growing up in New York, I remember the long car rides to visit my Nana in Florida. As a 6-year-old, I can remember being bored out of my mind. These were the days before even a Walkman, let alone an iPod or tablet.

Halfway on the journey to the Sunshine State the billboards would begin. Dozens of them. All counting down the miles to South of the Border.

Located just over the NC border in Dillon, this flawsome attraction began in 1949. In response to the prohibition of alcohol sales in his NC county, Alan Schafer opened a pink, cinder-block stand and named it South of the Border Beer Depot. A couple of years later a motel was added and the name was shortened to South of the Border.

Pedro, the star of each billboard, was born out of two motel employees from Mexico. Schafer had met them on a business trip. Customers collectively referred to both bellhops as Pedro.

If you haven’t been, Libby Wiersema gives the best description, “If Las Vegas hooked up with Route 66 and had a baby, this would be it.”

This SOB leans into its weirdness.

Passing Lesson: Lopsiding and withholding your marketing spend

A Pink Goldfish marketing lesson from the Autobahn. Last summer our family went on vacation to visit relatives in Holland. Summoning the adventurous spirit of Clark Griswold, we decided to rent a car and tour some neighboring countries. The first was Germany.

Driving on the autobahn (highway) was an experience in itself. Contrary to popular belief, there are speed limits. But for long stretches between cities, there are none. I routinely would keep up with traffic at about 170 kilometers per hour. That’s just over 100 mph. Every so often we’d get passed by an Audi, BMW, or Mercedes. They’d fly by going in excess of 200 km per hour.

There is a lesson here. In normal times, it is hard to stand out when everyone is cruising along at a similar speed. Ramping up slightly is hardly noticeable. You’d really need to floor it to be memorable.

But during a pandemic, when everyone is pulling over or throttling down, turning up your spending and lopsiding in some areas can be extremely effective.

Takeaway – Reexamine your marketing mix. Find areas to lopside and also find areas to withhold. In some areas turn the dial all the way up to 11. In other areas, especially where all of your competitors are, you might want to turn the dial all the way down to 0.

Rethinking Marketing

Are you ready to rethink marketing? Here are 11 takeaways from the book Purple Goldfish 2.0:

1. Your brand is no longer just what you tell people it is. It’s what your customer experiences, how they feel, and most importantly, what they tell others about their experience.

2. There is no such thing as just meeting customer expectations.

3. Experience design is the next frontier of marketing and brand building.

4. Marketing is about being so remark-able that people can’t just help but talk about you.

5. Going forward, marketing will be about achieving customer-getting distinction by differentiating what you do and how you operate.

6. Over-deliver on the things that are valued by your customers and create signature elements of added value.

7. Take care of the customers you have . . . they’ll bring you the customers you want.

8. The majority of how we judge others and brands comes down to warmth and competence.

9. Lagniappe is the idea of doing a little something extra. They are signals that honor the relationship with your customer.

10. Purple Goldfish is any time a business purposely goes above and beyond to add value or reduce effort.

11. You have to give your customers something to talk about.

https://www2.slideshare.net/9INCHMARKETING/rethinking-marketing-purple-goldfish-20-top-11-takeaways

Assessment: Understanding organizational strengths and weaknesses

Do you really understand your organizational strengths and weaknesses in order to stand out in the marketplace? In the words of Youngme Moon, “The number of companies who are truly able to achieve competitive separation is depressingly small.”

Only about 3% of individuals and organizations have the ability to think and act differently. It’s because companies tend to define their strengths and weaknesses using the same measurements and standards as their competitors. This leads to homogeneity, not differentiation. When everyone is trying to build on the same strengths and eliminate the same weaknesses, all companies start to look the same.

It’s time to reassess weakness. Your organization’s weaknesses are important clues to your most powerful strengths. In the words of my Pink Goldfish coauthor David Rendall, “What makes us weak can also make us strong.”

I challenge you to take the assessment below and see where your strengths and weaknesses match up.

For example:

•Companies can be seen negatively as small and weak… or positively as quick and responsive.

•Products can be seen negatively as overpriced… or positively as luxurious.

Takeaway – If we truly appreciated our weaknesses, we’d amplify them instead of trying to fix them.

https://www.slideshare.net/9INCHMARKETING/pink-goldfish-strengths-and-weaknesses-assessment

R.I.P. Tony

I woke up yesterday morning and my wife Jenn shared the awful news. Tony Hsieh passed away in Connecticut as a result of injuries sustained in a house fire while visiting family.

Tony was a gifted entrepreneur, best-selling author, customer experience advocate, and a kind-hearted soul. I wanted to share 3 stories to sum up the man:

Hsieh joined Shoesite.com in 1999. It would become Zappos. Tony was a pioneer in advocating for service and culture in business. One of my favorite Tony stories was about 6pm.com. In a pricing error, the site capped every price at $49. While undetected, Zappos lost $1.6 million. Hsieh honored all purchases and shared, “To those of you asking if anybody was fired, the answer is no—this was a learning experience for all of us.”

The second story is about In-N-Out Burger. It speaks to his playful nature. In 2004, Hsieh ordered and ate—with a team of six others—a 100 x 100. Here’s the video.

The last story is about an aspiring author. On a whim in 2011, this nobody reached out to Tony for a testimonial. Hsieh asked for the manuscript saying he’d consider it. Weeks later, and I remember where I was when receiving the email (a swim lesson for my son in Norwalk, CT), Tony shared a quote for my first book. A class act.

R.I.P. Tony

Note-worthy Thank You

A note-worthy “thank you” from Delta Air Lines. Jason Aten from Inc. Magazine wrote about a recent flight to New York City. As the plane approached the gate at LaGuardia, a Delta flight attendant named Dave Breger shared a handwritten note with the following:

“I wanted to take a moment to say thank you for flying with us today. Thank you also for being a Silver Medallion with us. It truly is passengers like you that make my job not only great, but also makes Delta the airline it is today. Thank you so much for your continued loyalty. All my best & safe travels.”

Aten commented on the gesture, “The note was simple, but honestly, what it said was far less significant than the fact that it was personalized and handwritten.”

To reference a Disney principle: Everything you do (or don’t do) communicates.

This little extra by Delta is a great example of the spirit of lagniappe. Something extra that goes beyond the transaction to honor the relationship.

Aten captures this brilliantly, “When someone takes the time to write something by hand, it says far more than had they sent an email or simply signed a preprinted card. It communicates that they care. Why else would they sit down with a pen and paper and go through the effort of writing down a few words?”

Rethinking Black Friday

How are Walmart, REI, Patagonia, and Big Y World Class Market are rethinking Black Friday this year?

LESS EARLY
Walmart is rolling back its approach. According to Fortune, “Walmart, traditionally open all day on Thanksgiving so customers can buy food with Black Friday doorbusters starting late afternoon closed on Turkey Day for the first time since the 1980s. That gave other retailers, notably Best Buy, Target, and Macy’s the cover to follow suit.”

#OPTOUTSIDE
Five years ago, REI closed all 150 stores and online for Black Friday. The tradition continues in 2020. Check out this link to their site. You can view a guide on recreating responsibility and explore 95 ways to spend time outside.

LESS IS MORE
Today, Patagonia launched the “Buy Less, Demand More” campaign. According to InStyle, “Part campaign, part rallying cry, it heralds the next phase in the company’s evolution, including tighter integration of its four-year-old Worn Wear program for used clothing and gear.” Now when you shop online for new, you might have an option to buy used.

REFRESH
Big Y Supermarket is acknowledging their employees’ hard work during COVID with thank you pay and a day off. They are keeping the stores closed on Friday to allow for extra cleaning and restocking.

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Stan Phelp's Blog

The Goldfish Chronicles

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