I hate the rain.

I mean, I'm all for renewing of the earth, circle of life, blah blah blah. I'm also all about sharing that intimate time when you and someone you care for listen to the raging thunderstorm outside... the rain hitting the roof, the thunder in the distance, and then the window-shaking detonation that reminds you that Nature isn't screwing around.

Hated it in the military, hated it on hikes when I lived in Hawaii, and particularly hate it when it's 33F here in Chicago and I have to walk to work from the train in a downpour. I know "hate" is a strong word, and maybe I really don't know what true hate is, but yea. Hate being in the rain. So I babied up and caught a cab outside the Metra station. Hey, it's like 4 whole blocks. Did I mention it was raining?

Anyway, I stepped out o the rain and into a nightclub on wheels.

I'm not kidding. 0635, and suddenly my world was hanging disco balls, a flashing blacklight, garland streaming everywhere, bright flyers. Welcome to Sid Bennett's Happy Ride. "I'm a nightclub on wheels, man!" he exclaims, as I snap an iPhone pic.

In their excellent book Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath tell us that for something to stick in your mind, to warrant sharing and recall and action, it needs to be one ( or more ) of these four things:

- Funny
- Novel
- Genuinely useful
- Sexy

Sid's cab experience was 3 out of the 4... and if I swung that way, maybe it'd be 4. He was sporting a cowboy hat, and oozed confident calm.

I stepped out of the cab ( after my amazing 4 block ride ) and into the Argo Tea that occupies the street-level space in the building I work in, and proceed to have the following conversation with the barista:

"Heya, morning," I say.
"Morning, how are you?"
"I'm great... I just had the craziest cab ride. A dude in a cowboy hat, who's cab is all done up inside like a nightclub. Really made my morning."
"NO WAY! I've been in that SAME cab! so have some of my friends. We call him every time we go out..."

...and so on.

In Chicago, tea shop baristas are not known for their predilection for cabs to get from point A to B, and probably by extension neither are their friends. The fact that the first person I spoke with about my unique experience claimed to have had one herself, and so had many of her we-don't-usually-take-cabs-but-hey-it-was-a-nightclub-on-wheels friends had as well, was amazing.

Sid Bennet has taken probably less than a $30 investment and made apparently a cast-iron brand for himself in a city as large as Chicago. Impacted so many of us that the person serving up my iced ginger peach tea at 630am had heard of him and reached out for his services.

How's your branding going? How much do you spend? How many people turn aside from others who do the same boring thing you do and choose -you- ?

Just curious.

Happy Ride Co.
Sidney Bennett, President.
for a cab in Chicago, call 312-613-4812

He's a nightclub on wheels, man.

Labels: Brand, DIG, nightclub on wheels, Pete

Anyone who know me, knows that I'm a big fan of jargon. But like any powerful tool, it can be used for both good or for evil. In each facet of my life, I've adopted jargon that helps me communicate better, or face it, is just sort of fun.

The other day I found myself accidentally coining the term, "Jargon Grenade." It was in reference to, "the substitution of jargon for insight or strategy."

I was trying to capture the tragic consequences when someone trips across a shiny new piece of jargon... and then proceeds to toss it into conversation, or worse, launch project around it, without really understanding what it means or backing it up with any real thinking.

Jargon grenades are seductive. In business, it's so easy to find a hot new concept that 's fresh and sexy, and simply toss it at a problem. Like pulling the pin on a grenade, throwing it over a wall and sticking your fingers your ears hoping for the best... hence jargon grenade.

What's harder is taking some hot new chunk of corporate jargon and thinking hard about how it really applies to your customers, your brand, and your business.

Ask yourself, "Sure ____________ is cool. But is it our kind of cool?"

Labels: Brand, Business, Critical Thinking, Marketing and Advertising