Aim for the remarkable

Zachary Aldwin Milkshake in the Boardroom
Let me give you a way to annoy people; as people drive into your organisation do not give them a security parking card as they pass through the entrance, then ask for it on the way out. Here is another one.

Open a restaurant that only ever offers half of what is on your menu, but do not tell clients what is missing until they are ready to order.

Or you could put your staff on a rotation system that ensures that whenever someone calls the office they deal with a new person who has no knowledge of previous communications.

Or invent an automated complaints hotline that ensures your customers never get a human voice on the other end.

Offer me “up to 10Mbps” download speeds then give me something that makes dial-up look faster.

Let me tell you what each of these does; it stops me wanting to go back to you. Not only that, it prompts me to tell the world about how bad your service.
While I may not name and shame organisations in this column (well not often anyway) you can be rest assured that when someone asks me for a place to eat, or an internet service provider, or whatever it is that you actually do I tell them not to go to you.

I may, if you tick me off enough, rant about you on Facebook or other social media. That is the beauty of how ideas spread today.

Ideas do spread rapidly these days. That is the crux behind marketing; you are trying to spread an idea.

It is not enough to have an idea. Nor is it enough to develop and translate that idea into a product.

You have to get people to buy the product. In order to do that, you have to make them want and ultimately need it.

Let’s talk iPhone; specifically, the iPhone 6 announcement. I know people who watched the entire presentation online just to see what was coming out.

They posted about it on media. People made jokes about it. Every other brand user cussed it out.

I’m not sure Apple cares about the bad jokes. What they care about is that they spread news of their product to a bunch of people who care.

And those people who care about Apple products will tell other Apple users about it. And word will spread, and people will buy it.

Why? Because people associate Apple with remarkable (now it does not matter whether or not you think they are, that is the association).

The White House is an ordinary building. What makes people want to visit it and not the building opposite? It is remarkable because of the person who lives in it the president of the United States, by its history, and by its lore.

Remarkable stands out. Remarkable spreads. Remarkable sells. It sells especially if you tell people who care.

There is a coffee shop in Harare that caught my attention because it did something remarkable.

It was so remarkable that I went there every day for a month? It made good coffee. But Zach that is not remarkable!

It is in a country where most cappuccinos are burnt or overheated and taste like the water used to make them came out of the dishwasher.

Consistently great coffee was remarkable. Fortunately for them no one else has figured this out yet so they still stand out and do well.

Right now in Zimbabwe we have often not got past good. Just being good here makes you stand out.

Let us start to change that. Raise our bar, offer remarkable service, remarkable products. Tell people who care and get them to tell their friends. Stand out and watch people come.

One last bit here. There is a boring way to tell people your products or services. It is to place an advert in the movie theatres in this country, but to make it a poster of your services with semi-cool background music.

Trust me that is not remarkable. It is so far below remarkable that I want to throw up when I see it.

If you are going to spend that much on advertising then please go the extra mile and invest in an advert that blows people’s minds when they see it.

People are about to watch an incredible movie straight after your advert, in order for them to remember what you just showed them by the end of the film, it better stand out from the crowd.