Andy Sernovitz's Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That!

Word of Mouth Mailbag: Apologizing with style

I love PrintingForLess.com (as all my readers know by now).

They do great printing for a great price -- with amazing hands-on personal service.

Of course, everyone screws up on occasion.  Recently, they shipped an order to the wrong address.  They promptly apologized, waived the shipping, and refunded part of the printing cost.  And did some top-quality groveling. I appreciated it.

Then Drew Seibenick of PFL's Silver Team did even better:  He sent me this pretty cool necktie.  Totally unnecessary, but appreciated.  And it's not a tacky promo item; it has a tasteful pattern that happens to be their logo. 

I'm a happy customer ... and I'm sure I'll be telling this story every time I wear it.  The tie is a guaranteed word of mouth generator.

Lesson: It's not the mistakes, it's how you handle them that counts.

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The Word of Mouth Mailbag features great word of mouth thingys that people have sent me or were gathered in my travels. Send me stuff (address)... I'll shamelessly blog anything that demonstrates great marketing -- or is cool, goofy, or fun. See the full list here.

Word of Mouth Mailbag: Ridiculous but Readable

Mitch Levy of publisher Happy About gave me a fake $1,000,000 bill at a trade show.

Silly - yes. But I read the promotional copy on the back.

I like small, portable messages. No one wants to read your 12-page brochure at a trade show. But they will read a few sentences that are presented well. 

Stick to small things:  Flyers, business cards, bookmarks, etc.  They are easy to pass out, cheap to print, and you can stuff 300 in your pocket.  And they work better. 

Lesson:  You've got a big problem if you can't tell your story in a few sentences. Fix your brand or your marketing department if you can't answer "We do ...." in one sentence, with no jargon.

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The Word of Mouth Mailbag features great word of mouth thingys that people have sent me or were gathered in my travels. Send me stuff (address)... I'll shamelessly blog anything that demonstrates great marketing -- or is cool, goofy, or fun. See the full list here.

Word of Mouth Mailbag: Cool packaging

Revolution Tea did something simple that gets attention.  They put their tea bags in tiny little boxes, that fit in a another little box.

It's good tea ... but there is a lot of good tea out there.  But I took note of the brand first time a waiter handed me a little tea box in a restaurant.  I recognized it when I saw it again.  That never would have happened with a regular tea bag envelope.

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The Word of Mouth Mailbag features great word of mouth thingys that people have sent me or were gathered in my travels. Send me stuff (address)... I'll shamelessly blog anything that demonstrates great marketing -- or is cool, goofy, or fun. See the full list here.

Word of Mouth Mailbag: Wowza

WOWZA is a very clever word of mouth agency in Minneapolis.  They have a rich collection of fun ways to get your attention.  Check out the 50 Reasons Why Brainstorming Toy and other goodies in the Wowza Basement. These things keep people talking about them.

But sometimes it's something simple.  They sent me a world-famous Maui Wowee candy bar, turned into a Wowza candy bar.

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The Word of Mouth Mailbag features great word of mouth thingys that people have sent me or were gathered in my travels. Send me stuff (address)... I'll shamelessly blog anything that demonstrates great marketing -- or is cool, goofy, or fun. See the full list here.

Word of Mouth Mailbag: Something to share

Greg Stromberg and Peter Gorman own the rights to the Toobee toy.  We met at the CMO Summit.

As soon as Greg heard that I was a Toobee fan, he gave me a stack of special business cards.  25 of them.

It's one of the best word of mouth tactics: Give people stuff to pass around. Make it easier for them to spread the word.

When you meet someone excited about your product, how do you help them talk about you?

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The Word of Mouth Mailbag features great word of mouth thingys that people have sent me or were gathered in my travels. Send me stuff (address)... I'll shamelessly blog anything that demonstrates great marketing -- or is cool, goofy, or fun. See the full list here.

Word of Mouth Mailbag: A Personal Gift

My dentists do a lot of cool things. 

Dr. David Scheffler and Dr. Helen Song own Delaware Dental, and I wrote about some of the things they do in my book.

On my last visit they gave me a hand-mixed music compilation to celebrate my new baby girl. What a fantastic personal touch, what feeling, what creativity!

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The Word of Mouth Mailbag features great word of mouth thingys that people have sent me or were gathered in my travels. Send me stuff (address)... I'll shamelessly blog anything that demonstrates great marketing -- or is cool, goofy, or fun. See the full list here.

Word of Mouth Mailbag: Business Plan = Book

I've been sent a LOT of business plans. Thousands.  It's hard to tell them apart, much less decide which one is worth reading.  Erik Lucas and Benjamin Heins got my attention twice for his new venture Coffee2.

Their startup is making a new coffee drink to compete with Starbucks. I don't know enough about the beverage industry to comment on their idea.  But if they sure know how to get people's attention and get word of mouth, I expect great things.

The first time I opened my mail, there was a standard business plan ... buried in 10 pounds of loose coffee beans. My office never smelled so good.

The second time, they did something really wild: They turned their business plan into a 337-page book: "From Beans to Bentleys: The Story of How Two Entrepreneurs Built a Remarkable Brand and Challenged the Starbucks Empire."

Ballsy? Yes! 

True story? If they pull it off.

Good book? Who cares?

Smart marketing? Absolutely.

Investors: Call Erik at 219-229-2888.

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The Word of Mouth Mailbag features great word of mouth thingys that people have sent me or were gathered in my travels. Send me stuff (address)... I'll shamelessly blog anything that demonstrates great marketing -- or is cool, goofy, or fun. See the full list here.

Word of Mouth Mailbag: Pet Fat

A pound of fat is bigger than you think.  It's gross.  And if you carried it around with you, you'd think twice before eating another cookie.  That's the idea behind MyPetFat

Jay is a real-life diet guru who has come up with the perfect conversation-starter for his system.  Everyone is going to notice when you break out the fake fatblob and put it on the dinner table. Read his blog.

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The Word of Mouth Mailbag features great word of mouth thingys that people have sent me or were gathered in my travels. Send me stuff (address)... I'll shamelessly blog anything that demonstrates great marketing -- or is cool, goofy, or fun. See the full list here.