Virginia Miracle

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. 

South Carolina has been a hotbed of activity for the last 2 weeks, but the most interesting thing that happened to us yesterday happened on the phone. It wasn’t (just) the push polls and robocalls, it was our Austin friends calling to make sure we had gone to the polls and taken advantage of our opportunity to participate!

Texas boasts a lot of great things, but one thing they don’t have is a voice in shaping party tickets for the presidential election. I’d have to say the folks who called were a little envious that, because of our address, our voices count and theirs don’t. It was extremely gratifying for us to visit the polls yesterday and then watch the coverage last night and know we had been heard.

Being heard is a deep, universal need. It is an outward confirmation of our existence and importance. In the last week, I have had need to send notes to 2 brands about which I care very deeply, and have not heard back from either. I am still holding out hope that they will acknowledge me, but intellectually I know that those pings will go the way of the feelings of Texas Democrats – unrecognized – and it will change the way I connect to those brands going forward.

The Today show featured some marketing envorinmentalism – one school’s great results of holding a ”catalog cancelling challenge“.  You can join the clutter-free ranks at catalogchoice.org. 

While catalogs take a long time to decompose yet are only “good” for a limited time, it appears that viral video can live forever.  Just for fun, I started searching for some of the videos that Cole & Weber United produced for me in 2005 and they are still out there.  You can still enjoy Mitch Ferrence’s dance lessons, air guitar instruction, and Mark’s ditties - my favorites are “Thanks in Advance” and “Bracketman: A March Tragedy”.

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!

We now interrupt the corporate brand discussion to cover a more appropriate MLK day topic, leadership.

I currently live in South Carolina, which means that for the past 2 weeks, I have had the strange experience of being bombarded by presidential ads that are NOT meant for me. When I lived in Austin, I could count on one hand the number of people I knew who were natives – almost everyone had relocated from another part of the state, country or world because of the remarkable lifestyle and employment opportunities there. On the flip side, I know very few people who are transplants to South Carolina and the candidates tailored messages accordingly.

As far as I can tell, all of the candidates made South Carolina-specific broadcast pieces and ran them until I curled up in a ball and cried uncle (1 week to go for the Dems). Republican ads hit the following messages in a big, repetitive way – I’m a Christian, I’m pro-life, I will protect the country. The manner in which they covered those points seemed almost condescending to me but I shrugged it off as “I’m not the target, they’re probably good ads”. In thinking that, I am as guilty as the candidates for underestimating my neighbors. NBC filmed a great interview Saturday night with a Christian study group in Columbia, South Carolina whose members said they were offended by the way the candidates were trying to use religion to gloss over their plans to deal with the very real & complex issues facing the nation. They didn’t understand how being photographed with a big cross in the background should supersede the need for them to understand candidate positions on long term plans for Iraq, the economy and illegal immigration. Sharing a common gender, race, college, sports team, or even religion is no guarantee that common values about the future of the country are shared.

I am no political pundit, but I think there is an opportunity for the candidate who wants to put a little faith in the intelligence of the American voter – even those in the “backward” southern states. Great leaders don’t rise to positions of power by insinuating that their followers are of lesser intellect.