Deer-in-the-headlights marketing: not remarkable, just memorable

Posted on | February 25, 2010 | Comments Off

It was something of a shock to find a reference to Deposit, NY in this post from Seth the Famous, since Deposit is even more obscure than Sidney, NY (where I am).

You don’t expect famous people to have ever heard of anyplace at all in Deposit.

For the record, we have villages in this neck of the woods that are still more obscure. Relatively speaking, both Sidney and Deposit are well-known because they both have exits on major highways: I-88 for Sidney and the soon-to-be-I-86 (currently State Highway 17) for Deposit.

This was the view from my front porch this morning; we got our snow back

The view from my front porch this morning.

Also for the record, I have no idea whether the diner he refers to in his post is still there. But if you really want to know, Seth, email the name of the place to me and I’ll run on down Rt 8 to take a look for you.

After it stops snowing, obviously. That’ll be sometime over the weekend, I gather. (I bet the folks down in D.C. are very happy they’re not getting this storm, too, huh?)

Anyway, the real point of the reference to Seth’s post has nothing to do with Deposit, NY, of course, or even with the fact that I am getting quietly snowed in even as I type.

Well, except to the extent that the dining experiences of young Seth Godin were extraordinary enough to cause obscure little Deposit to retain a place in his memory.

I’m not inclined to argue about whether it is possible to manage for doing an adequate job and manage for over-the-top experiences at the same time. Of course it’s not; I’m kind of amazed at the implication that anybody out there would even try.

But there is a middle ground there. Seth probably already knows that (because Seth knows everything) but he didn’t mention it, so I thought I should.

I have a feeling that the folks who ran that diner in Deposit weren’t really going for the transcendent experience. Actually, from the description, it didn’t even sound like the experience was all that transcendent or over-the-top or anything else that extravagant.

It sounded like what you find in a lot of little places like Deposit: quirky, maybe a little loopy, with employees who like to take a dull job and make it fun. That can produce a memorable experience for you without necessarily feeling like you’ve just stepped into an old Crazy Eddie commercial.

(Don’t feel badly if you don’t know who “Crazy Eddie” is and please accept my apologies for the oblique 1980s NYC TV reference.)

“That customer who came for the on-spec service isn’t going to be happy with the over the top hoopla.”

Probably not. They might enjoy a bit of the warm/fun and memorable service, though.


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