March, 2008 | Virginia Miracle

Give It Away, Now

By virginia.miracle | March 7, 2008

“What we keep we lose, and only what we give remains our own” was stitched on a banner that I saw every day on my way into elementary school. At that point, it was more of a moral compass. More recently, I’ve seen it turn into sound business advice.

There is no greater assignment of personal equity than to give a product or experience as a gift. On an early date with my husband, I gave him my favorite album – thereby assigning my “VeeDub equity” to it. Always a risk – he could hate it, and the value of “VeeDub equity” could have decreased in his eyes.

Similarly, giving a customer a little piece of your brand to give away themselves (an experience invitation, a sample, a coupon, a badge, etc) is a great litmus test. Your customer will do one of 3 things, which will allow you to know how to invest in them in the future:

Ignore it – Either you chose an unappealing representation of the brand to share with them or they were never going to be an enthusiast. This individual is not one you should continue to invest in disproportionately.

Keep it for themselves – This means that they enjoy your brand, but will not share because they either do not feel like it reflects positively on their own brand equity or they do not feel comfortable sharing with others. These folks are not hubs. Continue to value their patronage, but they are not evangelists in the making.

Pass the brand along – They feel like sharing your brand reflects back positively on them and they are willing to assign their personal equity to it. Embrace these people. They are going to be a higher ROI investment than any other acquisition channel. Give them the tools & education to become evangelists.

Can Cupcake WOM Last?

By virginia.miracle | March 1, 2008

While prowling my new Georgetown neighborhood for fashion finds this past weekend, I stumbled across a darling awning in the distance proclaiming “Georgetown Cupcake“. The cupcake phenomenon that has kept lines formed at Sprinkles in LA and Magnolia in NYC (immortalized in SNL’s Lazy Sunday) has officially reached my new corner of the world.

I was technically out searching for a duvet cover, but thought a cupcake break might hit the spot so I crossed the street and noticed a sign on the door:

SOLD OUT – will reopen at 5

Hmm. They must be good if they’re sold out, right? I was so wiped from shopping that I sent my dear husband back at 5 to pick up a few. He found a line so long that he announced the only way he would have waited in it would have been if a private concert with U2 was on the other end. Foiled again.

Sunday, I returned with Blackberry in hand figuring I could read some email while waiting for a cupcake. About 20 minutes in, someone was deciding whether or not to wait and asked “Has anyone actually tasted these cupcakes?“. Only 1 line-waiter had and she assured us they were good, but she was going to try a different flavor this time. A few minutes later, a woman walked by, remarked on the line and said, “Oh! I think the founder was on Martha Stewart this week!” Martha knows cupcakes, right? This will totally be worth it. After waiting for FORTY MINUTES, the proprietors walked out to announce they were sold out again. WHAT?? ARE THE CUPCAKES MADE WITH JOHNNY DEPP’S TEARS OR SOMETHING?

During the week, while the touristas and 8 to 6ers like your humble blogette were safely out of cupcake distance, my husband snuck back to Georgetown Cupcake and procured these as a surprise:

They’re cute. They’re small. They’re cupcakes. Really, thought, the taste and form factor are not remarkable. What’s remarkable is THE LINE. I’d like to tell you that this type of WOM will fade once everyone tries them and realizes that they’re just OK cupcakes, but I can cite at least a dozen food based businesses all over the country as known for their lines than their food (ever visited Pepe’s or Sally’s in New Haven?).

I discussed this with Malcolm @ BzzAgent over lunch on Monday and he noted that we, as a culture, rarely have to wait in line these days. We can handle shopping, ticket purchases (source of my favorite line stories), post office and even many DMV duties virtually these days, so are we just a bunch of lost sheep searching for a line to stand in?

Now that I have had a Georgetown Cupcake, I will not be waiting in any 40 minute lines again. If anything, I am having dreams about turning my house into a cupcake bakery making over-sized cupcakes with unusual fillings in awesome gift boxes that I sell for $8 a pop. Given the nothing more than adequacy of their product, it will be interesting to see if the lines at Georgetown Cupcakes last…And if the Dean & Deluca across the street starts selling killer cupcakes to capitalize on the folks who wont wait in line.