As I review some of your generous input on Brands Worthy of a Weekend, I am developing a list of characteristics to help identify a BWOW before you chose your next business partner or give your money to a new vendor. I plan to share all of them over the next few weeks, but today’s shining example is Southwest Airlines.
It’s not because they are the first US airline to begin testing onboard broadband internet (although, seriously, kudos). It’s the fact that Southwest Airlines honors their customers. Southwest doesn’t need to state what customers deserve from flying SWA because they actively demonstrate this honor and respect through every touchpoint.
The company’s “Nuts About Southwest” blog is a group blog in the largest sense of the word. It features posts not just from employees all over the company – boasting titles from “Sr. Manager of Proactive Customer Service Communication” to “structural mechanic”, but from customers as well. In particular the blog has been featuring the adventures of a customer through his Persian gulf deployments and has continued to “adopt” the other servicemen onboard the USS Nimitz. Yesterday’s post from the USS Nimitz’ Marco Meloni isn’t the stuff of slick PR, but it demonstrates a genuine respect for the people who keep Southwest in business – their customers.
Updated 9:30am: Southwest also listens. They sent a kind comment of thanks within 2 hours of this initial post.
Last night, whilst watching something shameful off my DVR (ah, strike TV), I saw a self-described redneck get a tattoo of a Wrangler jeans label on the part of his body over which that label would normally sit.
So that started me thinking, why do people make their brand love permanent with tattoos? I understand the desire to closely associate with a brand whose philosophy you share, but brands are run by people and change over time. It takes extreme faith in a company’s desire to stay true to the brand’s meaning to break out needles.
Nike is so enamored of the idea of their employees making a permanent commitment, that in Fall 2000, they brought tattoo artists to campus “just in case there was interest” and about 30 “Ekins” (Nike spelled backwards) took the plunge. The phenomenon of the swoosh tattoo rippled out from there. Another extreme example of brand tattooing is Disney Tattoo Guy, who sports Disney icons on 90% of his body. Permanent promotion! Maybe tattoo artists should be brought to more gatherings of brand fans “just in case” someone decides to join the tribe.
Below, I am sharing a smattering of brand tattoos that I found particularly entertaining – the final being a potentially cautionary tale about how tattoo meanings can change as brands do.
Consumer Tats:
Geek Tats:
And, oh, how things change…
Are there any brands for which you feel such a passion that you’d make it permanent? And I thought a weekend was a commitment!
There is a fun story in today’s WSJ about brand fans of the Oreo also-ran, Hydrox. Kellogg killed off the cookie brand, which would have celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, in 2003 after failing to gain any ground against the Oreo even after reformulating and renaming the product “Droxie” to try to appeal to children. While I personally can not remember ever tasting one of these cookies, this brand had real fans and they are organizing to try to get Kellogg to reconsider.
There is a history of fans using the internet to rally for discontinued “brands” – but with limited success. Jericho fans bombarding the network with nuts to get a few more episodes. Similarly, Save Our Bluths sent banana baskets to Fox which may have contributed to the brilliant/low-rated Arrested Development getting another season, but at a reduced episode order and it was promptly canceled. Hopefully a similar fate is not in store for 30 Rock.
On the beverage front, Save Surge has been around for more than 5 years, but with no real response from Coca Cola, beyond the company trying to enlist these fans to support the launch of their very similar formulation, Vault.
So what holds these brand movements together? I think the Hydrox fans sum it up with their call to arms “Non-conformists don’t eat Oreos“. These challenger brands have an element of delicious discovery and make the users feel independent and in-the-know for supporting them and spreading the word. If the brands had mass popularity, they wouldn’t need movements in the first place! The challenge to marketers is to help all brands – not just those headed toward the dustbin – to instill customers with those same feelings of smart individuality or discovered knowledge that they will be inspired to pass along.
Why am I a Costco fan? 1 word: Churro. Just kidding, although I do look forward to a Costco churro as a reward for pulling myself away from their deal sprinkled aisles with anything less than a $300 bill.
The truth is that I love Costco’s mixture of constancy and variety.
Constant features: accepting returns for things like unwanted wedding presents we received from other states, Costco’s giant & delicious premade spinach salads, cheap wine/diapers/gas, and money back with their higher end memberships. The constancy of their great deals on large TVs encourages me that we will be able to afford a sweet LCD in our next house.
Variety: The Greenville Costco launched with piles of deeply discounted Chip & Pepper and True Religion jeans. 2 weeks later? Totally gone, but Coach watches took their place. Every Costco I have visited has succeeded in their treasure hunt merchandising mission and kept me wanting to come back in a few weeks.
And so, dear Costco, should you deem it desirable to bring together the faithful to seek feedback on Costco’s future and what your core constituents want, I am ready for my invitation.
Note: Costco’s success is well documented, but this weekend I’m going to talk not about their fiscal success, but how they’ve created evangelists and why I am among them. They exemplify a brand that is worthy of a weekend.
To me, the exciting thing about Costco evangelists is that lurk in unexpected places. There are lots of people who do not need to pinch pennies or stock a house to feed a family of 12 who will still go out of their way to shop at this membership warehouse. Here’s my take on their ingredients for success:
Amazing Customer Service – How do they achieve this? They take care of their employees (paid an average of $17/hour) which reduces turnover and supports a knowledgeable sales staff. Costco both creates internal evangelists and makes the connection between taking care of employees and their motivation in taking care of customers.
Return Policy – They return everything for any reason. They have only recently limited electronics to a 90 day policy due to the amount they were losing on those tech returns.
Controlled Markup – Costco marks prices up by no more than 15% over wholesale. So no matter what a great buy they make, they pass along the savings to customers.
The Treasure Hunt – This is the secret sauce. Costco goes out of its way to surprise and excite its visitors with limited availability designer items. This solves two major challenges faced by warehouse stores – with products sold in such huge quantities, why visit regularly and why buy now? According to CEO Jim Sinegal last month:
“We have used the analogy in the past that one time they may come in and see that we have some Coach handbags and they come in the next time and the Coach handbags aren’t there, but perhaps there are some Fila jackets. The attitude is that if you see it, you have got to buy it because it may not be there next time. We purposely try to merchandise to that type of mind-set…We carry about 4,000 stock-keeping units, and about 1,000 of them are constantly in that changing mode, where they provide that treasure-hunt atmosphere.”
QUESTION TO THE READER – Costco sells very cheap sodas, hot dogs, and my very favorite – the churro. What role do you think this plays in their success??
