What The Hell Do You Expect?

It occurs to me that your experience is critically tied to your expectations. And in some ways I think people expect too much these days. Reasonable expectations are valid and determined by the mores of the day. If you see great customer service in action ----- you come to expect that. And likewise, if you see bad customer service ----- you tend to expect more of the same.

And whether you realize it or not, you have certain expectations from great brands.

You don't expect the same cornering from a Chevy Geo as you would from a Porsche Cayman. A Kit Kat bar doesn't taste like Godiva. Whatever is inside that Tiffany box will likley be better than the sack from Sears. The shoes from Cole Hahn feel better than a pair of loafers from Payless. And that $2 Starbucks should be better than the no name office coffee.

Point is, you help shape the expectations of all the brands you come in contact with, along with millions of others. And expectations are always built in to the advertising and promotions for brands (good ones and bad ones) perceptionally and in reality.

What are your expectations, and what brands have let you down lately?

Hold Please.

Gotta love this. There's a small advertising agency in Seattle - Creature. They must have had a little extra time on their hands......they decided to re-do their own on hold music. What they came up with is both creative and fun!

No boring Muzak here. No highly caffeinated psuedo pop rock. No smoooooth jazz.

Just a thoughtful rant on your next conversation.

"I heard the rumors about how bad our hold music was -- and so I called and asked to be put on hold and I was really embarrassed," said Jim Haven, chief creative officer at Creature. "You spend so much time talking to people on your cell phones, you kind of forget about the main phone number and that to many people it's the gateway. At any rate, I challenged the creative department to come up with a solution."

"This Next Telephone Conversation," gives you some insight in to what MIGHT happen next. My personal favorite take is: "You MIGHT find yourself on a cliff, drinking beer, with a midget".

They're teasing us now with the possibility of adding more songs --- maybe a 'Songs to Hold By' greatest hits!

Love to see creative people look for any and all outlets for their creativity.

Happy 2011

What is all the fuss about a change on the calendar? A flip of the page, a turn of the dial? It's just another day. Some people make way too big a deal over it. I simply don't understand that.

What I do understand is that the things I truly care about will get the most attention from me in 2011, and all the days after.