Today's Theme Song - Smash Mouth, "All Star"
I have a Snapple lid on my desk that says, "When in doubt, change zip codes."
As advice goes, I wouldn't normally suggest taking it from a Snapple lid, however this particular lid offers an odd bit of wisdom.
Let's dissect this a little more.
"When in doubt..." - If you're having second thoughts, or you think something should change.
Let me tell three short stories here to illustrate the point...
Story 1: A man walks in a McDonald's and orders a burger and fries. He happily accepts the tray of food, complete with napkins, ketchup packets, drink and straw. He sits down, unwraps the sandwich, dumps out the fries and starts the brutal attack on the ketchup packet. Since he touched his greasy meal already, his fingers slide off the package again and again as he tries to tear a hole just to get a little bit of ketchup for his fries. He finally puts the package between his teeth and savagely rips at it. The ketchup packet explodes and he suddenly understand why they gave him so many napkins - he spends the rest of the day with a ketchup stain on his tie. He avoids his last meeting of the day because of the stain, ruins a major deal for the company, resulting in his ultimate demise with this company.
Story 2: Young Timmy forgot to get his 5th grade sweetie a Valentine's Day present until the last minute. So he begged and pleaded with his Mom to "PLEASE" take him to the local drugstore so he can see if there is anything left on the shelf. He gets there and in his frantic search finds only a few packages of pale, chalky hearts with old, outdated messages. He sighs and hands the packages to his Mom. The next day, Little Susie examines the odd messages printed on the hearts, tastes one, spits it out and spends the week with Bobby, who thought to bring her some chocolate.
Story 3: A TV station once decided to fill a void - A void it saw as black hole in the American heart that truly loved it's music. And with the announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," the Music Television Station was born. Twenty years later, that little station lost it's way. No longer did Rock and Roll rule the screen. Instead it was filled with talk shows, reality TV, date shows and every once in a while a music video popped up. Teenagers, radicals and rebels checked their TV Guides and saw the logo which proudly announced itself as "Music Television," only to tune in to betrayal. For over ten years, people turned away from their televisions in hurt and confusion.
And now for the next line...
"...change zip codes." - It might be time to make a change - a small change or a big change, it. is. time!
And the ending to each story to illustrate...
Story 1: Heinz Ketchup announces that it will finally change it's Ketchup packets so they are easier to open. Better late than never? And they are so sorry for the ruined clothing over the years.
Story 2: Necco who makes the age old conversation hearts has decided to update their messages, flavors and colors. It might be too late for Timmy, but surely someone will benefit from this long awaited update.
Story 3: MTV finally changed their logo in the most subtle way possible. They simply removed the words, "Music Television," from the logo and left everything else. This attempt to note the difference in their format probably should have been more dramatic, but they did try.
The simple lesson here?
Make sure your business changes with the needs of your consumer, so you aren't left out. Keep up with your customers. Sometimes change is a good thing.
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