Mothers® Car Wax and Mother’s Day.

Just so you know, I posted today's blog entry without researching the Mothers® Car Wax brand.

All I know is that Mothers® has been around forever and that in my opinion, it’s the best car wax on the market.

Ironically, and most unexpectedly, a couple without children decided the family car needed to be waxed today -- on Mother’s Day.

Well, truth be told, it was the husband's idea. His wife thought the car looked just fine.

So I watched and listened. The woman thought the wax smelled good. Her husband didn’t say a word. He just kept polishing.

And when his wife remarked how beautiful the shine was, he said something about carnauba and that it comes from a palm somewhere in Brazil.

Harlequin Cat just thought it was cool that on Mother’s Day a car-wax brand called Mothers® could literally outshine the jewelers and florists of the world.

I wonder if Mothers® ever thought about this. Like I said, I didn’t research the brand.

Searching For The (Retail) Light.

This weekend I watched a woman visit seven stores looking for office chairs: Pier 1 Imports, Broyhill, Copenhagen Imports, HomeGoods, Kanes, Bacon’s Furniture and Havertys. Being an omniscient feline, I knew she was hoping to buy a lighting fixture as well.

The woman was casually dressed. Summer shorts. Sleeveless blouse. Ponytail. She certainly didn’t have to worry about being accosted by salespeople, especially the well-dressed ones at Bacon’s (although she was only one of three customers in the entire store). Her Pier 1 Imports’ experience was by far the most enjoyable. The sales associate went out of his way to help her, although she still didn’t see exactly what she was searching for.

Thirty minutes later, she found a black chair she liked (at Broyhill), but she needed two and they only had one in stock. The salesman said she could take one home that day, and the other would be delivered in six weeks.

When she said she wasn’t willing to wait that long, he tried to sell her brown chairs, which, of course, were in stock (the dark expresso brown was “identical” to black, he said.)

The woman left. But on the way home, she stopped at a lighting store and purchased a ceiling light that wasn’t even on her list to buy – a George Kovacs chrome-and-glass number that she knew would transform her kitchen. No heavy sales pitch. A good price point. And simple, direct answers to her questions, ponytail and all.

Now if only she can find her non-expresso black chairs.

Pardon The Cat Nap.

Actually, I haven't been napping. It's just that I've been been so darn busy that I haven't had time to reflect on a thing, much less write about it.

I'll fill my pen with ink soon.

HQ

Take The Steering Oar With Your Tweets.

“The captain, who had been on the coast before and knew the ropes, took the steering oar."

-- from Richard H. Dana’s 1840 memoir, Two Years Before The Mast

HQ wishes more people on Twitter would take the steering oar and tweet their own unique messages instead of sharing information we can get from any news source.

The desired halo effect is becoming increasingly transparent.

I already know about Japan's devastating earthquake. I know daylight saving time started yesterday. I know about the foreclosure crisis. Am I the only one who’s tired of regurgitated news?

As Seth Godin writes this morning, he loves hearing about the next big thing, but he’s more interested in what "you're doing with the old big thing.”

What would happen if we were forced to retreat on retweets for just a day? I bet we would survive.

Branding And The Sixth Toe, Part II.

And so the story continues….

Yes, he’s a polydactyl cat, dozing outside The Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum in Key West. According to the museum’s website, Hemingway was given a six-toed cat by a ship’s captain, and some of the cats, like this one, are descendents of that original cat.

So instead of having five front toes and four back ones like normal cats, this one has six toes on his front paws.

They look like big soft mittens.

To think that this great-great-great-great-great grandcat of the one who sat and watched Hemingway write is mind-blowing.

Still, he looks like a normal puss. But HQ bets that if you were to own him, you’d go out of your way to point out his amazing hidden ancestry, his remarkable story.

Because it is remarkable.

A lesson for advertisers, don’t you think?

Look for the remarkable difference.

Then tell your story.

Branding And The Sixth Toe.

Last week a shoe retailer called out of the blue and said he’d like to “brainstorm” what made his brand different.

That should have been my first clue -- that he wanted to dream up a differentiator instead of identifying one based on facts and competitor research. “But research takes time and costs money,” he argued, adding that most shoe stores provide the same customer service. “We need to come up with something fresh and zingy. The younger generations like that kind of stuff.”

“Takes time and costs money” was my second clue.

The word “zingy,” the third.

I might send him this cat image.

Actually, it’s a polydactyl cat if you look long and hard enough.

‘Scuse Me, Enterprise, But No One’s Snowboarding In Florida This Week.

Dear Enterprise Rent-A-Car:

Nice email you sent inviting me to “warm up” with a $9.99 weekend special. I really like the photo of the snowboard couple all bundled up and laughing in the wintery scene.

But the thing is, it’s 75 degrees here. Not every state in the country is blanketed with snow and ice.

Maybe you got the photo mixed up with your surfboard couple? Oh, no -- you sent the surfboard version to your Chicago mailing list? And your Toledo list, too?

Wow. You should find someone to help manage your e-blasts, which, by the way, is a term that makes e-marketing service provider MailChimp "cringe." MailChimp says to focus on e-relationships, not one-size-fits-all e-blasts. Good idea. Might keep you from falling asleep at the wheel next time. Just a friendly suggestion.

Off to the beach,

HQ