Hasta La Creative!

Herb Kelleher, the founder and philosopher of Southwest Airlines, passed away this month at the age of 87. According to his obituary in The New York Times, Mr. Kelleher, was a lawyer who moved from New Jersey to San Antonio to start his own law practice. Then in 1967, one of his clients, Rollin W. […]

The post Herb Kelleher Passionately Pursued His Company’s Purpose appeared first on Adpulp.

Brand experience is almighty. While prospects experience a brand’s advertising, it’s often more impactful for people to actually experience the brand on a more visceral level. To this end, some prominent retailers are now exploring opportunities new in experiential marketing, brand extensions, and brand partnerships. According to The New York Times, West Elm, a division […]

The post Attention West Elm Shoppers Who Wish To Sleep In The Store appeared first on AdPulp.

Want the best possible access to your friends and colleagues? Consider video conferencing technology. CloudTweaks quotes Frost and Sullivan research about the expected market revenue for cloud based conferencing services and systems. By the time 2016 rolls in, the figure is estimated to hit $6.3 billion. That ties up with a whole lot of revenue. […]

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Impatient, are we? Not so much by nature, but by digital design. If something takes a few seconds to load, for instance, we act as if we are being cheated of precious time.

The powerful multi-way communication channels we now rely on have also reset expectations. Emails can sit there unanswered, but ignoring an Instant Message is another issue entirely. Now, take that concept to Twitter and Facebook.

According to Marketing Charts, a new study conducted by Havas Worldwide suggests that consumer expectations are high for social responsiveness, and that brands that fail to meet those expectations risk alienating a large portion of consumers.

Went to @McDonalds today and ordered a mcdouble with no pickles or onions and they gave me no buns…. pic.twitter.com/nd2urKJyYM

— Hunter Davis (@hpd_21) July 16, 2013

What happens when companies don’t respond quickly? Consumers get annoyed. 48% of respondents agreed that “it annoys me if I don’t get a fast response from a company or brand I contact via Facebook, Twitter, or another social media channel.”

Facebook and Twitter are places where people like to talk. That’s the “social” piece of social media. The need to craft traditional but moving communications remains. But now a brand (with help from its agency partners) is also expected to keep up an ongoing dialogue with the company’s biggest supporters on Facebook and Twitter. This dialogue is one part content offering, another part realtime conversation. And as a representative of the company, the conversation can quickly turn to customer service, reputation management and sales.

Brands spend lots of money on advertising in effort to capture the interest of a coveted audience. But whatever good will the brand earns via paid, earned or owned media can be instantly washed away in a devastating typhoon of social media cluelessness. Don’t be that brand. Understand the demands of modern media and invest in developing talent to meet these needs, because they’re not diminishing.

Footnote: To McDonald’s credit (see above), the hamburger chain maintains a customer service account on Twitter to quickly address customer’s problems.

The post Customer Service Defines Your Brand In A Way Advertising Never Will appeared first on AdPulp.

We've mentioned before—notably in last summer's Panera case—how random acts of kindness in customer service can snowball into massively positive PR when the customer involved relates the story poignantly through social media. The latest example comes from Midvale, Utah, where a server and manager at a Chili's restaurant thoughtfully helped out with a mini crisis involving a woman and her 7-year-old sister who has autism. The short story is: The sister refused to eat her burger, which had been cut in half, because she thought it was "broken." The server, in a remarkably compassionate way, offered to made her a new one—and the girl then kissed the new burger repeatedly when it arrived. It's a simple story, but one that the woman, Anna Kaye MacLean, tells evocatively in her post on Chili's Facebook wall. (See the full text below.) Now, Anna's accompanying photo of her sister kissing the burger has gone viral, with three-quarters of a million likes and more than 40,000 comments. Brands can't manufacture or even really plan for this stuff—that's what makes it so sharable—but it's always a joy when it happens. Via Mashable.

I want to share the experience that my husband, 7 year old autistic sister and I had today at the Chili's location in Midvale, UT. Arianna, my little sister, didn't waste any time when our waitress, Lauren, greeted us at our table. Arianna promptly ordered her cheeseburger with pickles, french fries, and chocolate milk before Lauren could even take our drink order. Lauren smiled and told Arianna, "Okay! I'll be right back with your chocolate milk!". When we got our food I was wondering why Arianna wouldn't touch her cheeseburger, but was going to town on her french fries. I asked her, "Arianna are you going to eat your cheeseburger?" She calmly said, "No, I don't want it." Cheeseburgers, or 'Krabby Patties' as we sometimes call them, are her FAVORITE! So this behavior was VERY strange. So I asked her, "Why don't you want it?". She replied, "It's broken. I need another one thats fixed." Then it dawned on me why she wasn't eating it. It's because it was cut in half. Being a child with autism, she has to have certain things in a particular order at all times. One slight change in her routine can change the course of the day instantly. When Lauren came back to check on us, I asked if we could order another cheeseburger and just add it to our check. She had a concerned look on her face so I explained that Arianna has autism, and that in her mind, because the cheeseburger was cut in half, she thinks its broken and can't eat it. I told Lauren I knew it sounded silly, but if we could just order an additional one we will gladly pay for it because there was nothing wrong with the one that was originally brought out. Lauren was so sweet and just smiled and went along with Arianna, telling her "I brought you a broken cheeseburger?! You know what, I'll have them cook you a new one!" I loved this because rather than just taking it from the table, she actually TOLD Arianna what she was doing. While this seems insignificant, by her telling Arianna what she was doing, we avoided a melt down. The manager, Bradley Cottermole, then came to our table, kneeled down, and said to Arianna, "I heard we gave you a broken cheeseburger! I am so sorry about that! We are making you a brand new one that isn't broken, with pickles! I'll bring you some french fries to munch on while you're waiting, ok?" A couple of minutes later, Lauren arrived back at our table with cheeseburger #2. Arianna said, "OH FANK YOU! You fixded my cheeseburger!" When Lauren walked away, Arianna just sat there for a second and looked at her new burger. She looked like so deep in thought….just staring at it….then she let out a big "OH I missed you!!" and started kissing the burger over and over again. I showed Lauren this picture and said, "I think we glorified the cheeseburger too much!" She busted up laughing, and asked if she could go show her manager. She came back a minute later and said she showed everyone in the back kitchen area too, and that it made them all laugh and smile. I was so touched by this experience. Especially since I know people who have been asked to leave restaurants when their child with autism is being disruptive. I expected a few different things with this scenario based on past experiences, but I did NOT expect such kind and compassionate mannerisms from Lauren and Bradley. Everyone, from the hostess to the chef, played a role in what most people would think isn't a big deal. But this entirely shaped how the rest of our day would go. I know…a cheeseburger cut in half literally could make or break our day. In this case thanks to the professionalism of the crew in Midvale, it made our day. And I'm sure Arianna brightened up at least one of the employees days with her silly little personality. Thank you.