Category: Blog

A few weeks ago, I found myself a fast food chain in Nashville. This red headed fast food chain will remain unnamed, but when I entered, it was beautiful. It was the nicest and most modern looking fast food restaurant I had ever stepped foot in. It was clear that they had recently remodeled and spent a lot of money doing so.

This set my expectations really high! I see this is a trend that McDonald’s started by rennovating to make their restaurants feel classier, in the face of many people moving on from eating fast food. This restaurant chain had even added a fancy line of teas that claim to be very truthful, to help encourage this appeal to a new customer base.

But with all things, if expectations are set higher the experience can hope to meet you have been set up for failure. To match up with the expectations that were set, I would have had to have a great customer experience. But the reason that this is becoming a blog post is because, it wasn’t.

The bathroom was dirty and the service was extremely slow and uninformed. I tried to redeem a coupon from a local sports franchise and it was met with stares and to many questions. The issue was resolved when, i kid you not, a redheaded manager came and reluctantly gave me the item. Fortunately, I do not live near this restaurant but if I lived near it, I would probably not return to this restaurant.

I would have been more forgiving if they had not set a super high expectation based on the appearance of the restaurant. Instead of this remodel being an investment, it really has become a cost because the customer will expect a better experience then they will receive and have a much worse experience.

That money would have been better spent on improving the team and investing in staffing to ensure a great customer experience. [bctt tweet=”A new coat of paint fixes nothing. “]

Google dropped some huge data information after the Superbowl this year. Mobile already is and is increasingly the most important platform for media. Our phones not only contain all of lives, it also is our gateway to the world. If your brand is not thinking about mobile, you need to a new marketing plan. “For brands, that means a presence on the big screen isn’t complete without a strategy for the small screen, too.”, wrote Google in its report.

Google measured a 40% increase of people searching for brands during the super bowl. Imagine if your brand couldn’t be found online or accessible on mobile!  You would be missing lots of “micro moments” as Google describes them. A micro moment is when a thought crosses someone’s mind and so they google google a product or service. Google search ads and high seo allow you to capitalize on these Micro Moments.

Search is not going away. Mobile is not going away. What are you doing to be ready for them? Will you be found?

I would love to have known what the results were for Red Lobster.

Read more of Google’s Report.

You are given two ears and a mouth for a reason, so that you listen more than talk. That is what we are told as a kid and something we should be reminded of as an adult.

For those of us who have gotten by on the strength of our opinions and are even getting paid to give them, sometimes listening can be difficult. I recently completed a logo for a client where I was struggling to get the design right. Because of the concept the logo was based on, visual balance was an issue.

This issue was resolved by listening. I went back to the client’s design brief and thought about the design. I had decided, in my infinite wisdom, to shorten the client’s business name. Now this effort was not misguided out of bad motive, in fact, it was in an effort to make the logo more sleek.

When I went back to the brief, I retried the logo design with more of the businesses name and it fixed all of the balance issues. Listening is one of the most importants of a marketer’s business or of a consultants business.

This was a good and clear reminder that listening is sometimes more important than doing.

While the lottery is now over, there were a few businesses that took advantage.

This months social media win or fail is the Pasta House. The Pasta House is a small chain of Italian restaurants in the St. Louis Missouri area. This month they scored a win because of their campaign around the lottery.

The offer was simple, like our page, like and share this post, and we will split this ticket with you if we win. Simple premise. Fantastic results.

This post took off like wild fire all around their region. What was the investment? It was not a sponsored post so just the cost of the ticket, which is a few dollars at most. The return might be some of the highest ROI i have ever seen.

According to some the Page Watching tools that Facebook provides they had 200% growth in their page fans and engagement. They picked up 1000’s of fans for literally a few dollars.

This was gorilla news jacking at its finest. What a win!

I just finished reading, Free Prize Inside by Seth Godin. One of the best thoughts in the book was something along these lines:

[bctt tweet=”If you are going to build a car, don’t build a faster car, build the fastest car.”] If your restaurant is going to use their attractive waitstaff as a marketing tool, get super models or twins. Find the edge of what can be done and that makes you unique.

-Seth Godin

My edge craft is providing all the marketing services a small business needs in one place and at an affordable rate.

What is the edge you are crafting on?

This month on Social Media Win or Fail: Lagavulin Scotch

This was a huge win for Lagavulin Scotch:

Why was this a win?

1. It was a low budget ad that has easily garnered 2 million views in the first week of it being posted online.
2. I counted well over 15 major news outlets that did a story on the video. (FREE PRESS!)
3. It capitalizes on Nick Offerman’s character from Parks and Rec Ron Swanson’s love for this brand of Whiskey. This brings in two audiences: Nick Offerman fans, and Parks and Rec fans. Brilliant cross reach.
4. People will probably play this in their homes, on their computers and tvs, during the holiday season. People will willing play this AD in their homes for fun this holiday.
5. Because of the way its shared, there is no cost in hosting. Only production costs here. Zero cost in distribution.

What an amazing win for this smaller brand of scotch!

We have all heard it said that the best marketing is word of mouth. From a marketing perspective, it is the absolute best way to do marketing. But how do you create good word of mouth?

The best way is to deliver great customer experiences every time someone comes in. Some of the biggest setbacks in restaurants I have seen is when the staff had an off night. The effects of that can be felt for weeks. Bad word of mouth spreads.

In this new chart from MarketingCharts, we see what people want to do when they have a good experience. Most everyone will tell friends and family. That is why I put an emphasis on working on the entire organization, holistic marketing, rather than just buying a billboard! Lets work towards making start raving fans!