Christmas Silliness

That time of year is upon us again and, at the risk of sounding like a ungrateful bah-humbugger, it often tends to bring out the marketing worst in businesses. This is largely because it underscores the 'check-box' mentality which persists in many businesses, particularly in a business-to-business environment.

I love to use old cliches and adages so here is one- if a thing is worth doing it is worth doing well. Building on this a little bit, part of the doing things well is doing things thoughtfully, passionately and meaningfully. If you don't have those things you are paying lip service. The first group who will feel the lip service is always your customers. They are the last ones you want exposed to lip service because they actually want to believe you care.

I had two examples today.

Let's start with the hoary old Christmas Card. If you are going to send a Christmas Card to your customers don't do it just because you feel you have to; or because everyone else does; or because you've always done it; or because it comes up every year on your to-do list. None of these is a good reason. Do it because you genuinely (and personally) want to send a message to your customers. It could be to thank them for their custom in the previous year; it could be to let the know you would have liked to do more business with them; it could simply be to let them know you are thinking about them (possibly, more specifically at the moment, hoping they are weathering the financial storm).

Today I received two cards in the mail. They came in identical envelopes (so I had a suspicion they came from the same place); both were addressed in identical hand writing; both were posted to exactly the same address and arrived on the same day; they were distinguished from each other because one was addressed to Mr. T. Pethick, the other to Mr. Tim Pethick. When I opened them both were identical cards; both from a service provider and......... both from the same owner/executive in the service provider business. The messages, also written in the same (perhaps computer generated?) hand were slightly different.

So, what is it telling me? I certainly didn't take it (the error) personally - how could I, there was nothing personal about any of it. And that is the first problem. But what does it say about the business? They aren't efficient enough to spot a duplicate name and address on the data base or they are too sloppy to care? Perhaps they just overlook the details. As I said in my things continue as they begin post, leopards don't change their spots. If a business has a problem in one area it might be manifest in others.

A duplicate Christmas card from the same person pales into insignificant though compared with today's second Christmas Faux Paux.

A courier arrived at the office with a lavishly wrapped, relatively large Christmas present. The card inside it indicated it was from a supplier who we have only recently started doing some business with. We have spent around $75K with them so we are not huge but it is a big spend for a little business like ours. Apropos my previous comments about cards, the card set things up correctly - it thanked us for the business this year and cheerily added that they looked forward to doing business again with us in 2009. If only they had stopped with the card.

I opened the present and was, quite literally, gobsmacked. I have attached a photo below which unfortunately doesn't do it justice.

It is a vase. On the base it carries a bar code sticker which says "Mosaic Trendy Vase" "Made in China". It is sort of a very crudely made, vase like version, of a disco ball. The mirrored glass (if that is what it is) on the outside is chipped in places and very crudely cut.

I was left spluttering - 'what were they thinking?' - to my team. Putting aside the question of taste, if we look at this as a marketing device what is it saying and what is it doing? The vase probably cost about $5, perhaps less (if it cost more, there is again a question of business judgement), but certainly less than the courier cost to deliver it. It is not a useful (or appropriate) gift.

Frankly, my initial reaction was either that it was some kind of (yet to be fully revealed) clever joke, or that they were sending me a message along the lines of 'p*** off - we don't want to do business with you', or perhaps "we sent the good clients a bottle of Moet but you didn't make the grade'.

I'm sure none of these interpretations is true but I am still left thinking - 'what were they thinking?' or 'did anyone think at all'. What was their strategy in sending out such a gift? How did it work as a piece of marketing/communications - not well!!

I know I may be sounding harsh and ungrateful in this assessment. But the point is that everything we do in business has an impact - even the littlest things. Successful businesses are built by people who focus on detail; who are thoughtful; who know what their brand stands for and who consistently deliver against the brand promise.

Sometimes it is better to do nothing than anything when building a business and Christmas seems to throw up more examples than not.