In the post the other day I got a package of brilliant stuff. You can see it above.
It contained a pack of “Make Mine a Builders” tea and a stylish silver mug with one of those climbing clippy things (I can never remember their proper name) as a handle.
Why did I get this? Well because I’d said I liked their tea once before on the blog.
It came with a hand-written comp slip that was written just to me. They’d spelled my name right and everything.
But the thing that made it super-special is that it was a total surprise. They’d gone out and done all the legwork themselves. They hadn’t emailed me to ask what my postal address was. They’d gone and figured it all out on their own.
So when it arrived it was a genuine moment of surprise and delight. (In case you’re not a jaded industry hack ’surprise and delight’ is pretty much the thing that everyone talks about doing to make their customers like them better).
Cynically you might say that they’re just trying to get some more publicity. And maybe they are. But you know what, I don’t care. I’ve got a shiny mug and some splendid tea (it is really good by the way).
Things to learn from this: nice, charming, personal, relevant, free stuff, shiny things, no effort from me.
8 Comments
Ohhh, it made me thirsty just reading the blog post. Honestly I am on my way downstairs as I really do need a cup of tea!!
legendary
being nice is for awesome people. and brands.
That climbing clippy thing is a “Carabiner”…
;-)
I knew someone would get it for me – cheers Knotty!
What did the letter say?
do you think you might start buying ‘builders’ over other Tea brands?or mabe you do already?
I wouldn’t buy it if it was rubbish tea. But like I said it’s good tea.
It’s hard to say, but I’ve definitely got a pre-disposition towards it right now. Don’t know how long the glow of niceness will last though…
Be assured Iain that Make Mine A Builders is a labour of love for us, so be assured our niceness will last as long as the brand. The product is something we are very proud of and our personality is what will drive our difference between our brew and the likes of other mainstream brands.
Enjoy
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[...] Iain reports on how he was surprised by the people behind Make Mine a Builder’s*. Sending out samples is nothing new, but Iain was surprised as this was completely out of the blue, they’d not emailed him first to find out his address but had done the digging needed to deliver a present. As he says, ’surprise and delight’s a a marketer’s mantra and I think they succeeded here with some great blogger relations and outreach which cost very little in the long run but has a big impact. [...]
[...] following the trail of my last post, I noticed Iain Tait had a good example of online relations to relate. He gave Make Mine a Builder’s tea a rave [...]