Think of a Purple Goldfish . . . as a ‘Branded Act of Kindness’

Another way to think of a purple goldfish is as a ‘branded act of kindness’.  Most people refer to ‘acts of kindness’ as random as opposed to branded.  Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with random.  Providing free breakfast, paying for tolls and buying folks gas is admirable.  It’s a nice ‘feel good’ that might get some media coverage, but make no mistake it is rarely a way to build your business.  You need ’surprise and delight’, but in a focused manner.

Enter Branded Acts of Kindness, i.e. PURPLE GOLDFISH

Branded reflects the next generation or 2.0 version of  ’acts of kindness’. Here is where I see the difference:

Random 1.0 – versus — Branded 2.0

Unpromoted                     Promoted

Untargeted                       Targeted

One off promotion           Recurring or Consistent

Opportunistic                   Planned

Relevant to recipient       Relevant to recipient + the brand

In the field                          At Retail

PR focused                         Integrated

It doesn’t just need to be random anymore.  Executed correctly, as part of an integrated strategy, ‘branded’ acts of kindness or ‘marketing lagniappe’ can create brand awareness and more importantly drive brand loyalty.

The beauty of creating a purple goldfish as a ‘branded act of kindness’ is that there is no waste.  You are giving that little extra to your current customers.  You are preaching to the choir . . . the folks who are already in church on Sunday.  The net effect is the following: NEW CUSTOMERS become REPEATS, REPEAT CUSTOMERS become OCCASIONALS, OCCASIONAL CUSTOMERS become FREQUENTS and FREQUENT CUSTOMERS become EVANGELISTS.