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  • A Branded Out of Office Note

    Most of the time branding comes down to paying attention to the littlest details and putting them into the littlest things – like your voice mail message, fax cover sheet and even your automated out of office email reply.

    Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing gets this.

    In true Andy fashion, here’s his vacation reply that I received recently. Instead of the typical fact based message this made me stop, laugh and think of Andy’s brand. It’s always the little stuff!

    Without Andy’s permission (he’s camping somewhere) – I share it with you. Hope he’s ok with that, if asked just tell him you sent him an email and this is the response you got.

    I’m off on vacation from Aug. 13-24.
    No, really, I am. For real.

    I’ll be camping somewhere, with minimal access to phone and email. If it’s an emergency or urgent new business, please send an email and I’ll call you from a Starbucks.

    Actually, they recently installed a Starbucks in the trunk of my car, because having a store every 80 yards just wasn’t enough.

    Other options:
    1. Take a vacation too.
    2. Call my office #. It forwards to my cell. I’ll check messages on occasion.
    3. Order a shipment from http://www.corkysbbq.com/
    4. Procrastinate by writing a silly and long out of office message.
    5. Find me a new assistant, hire them, then have them call me. (Seriously, I’m hiring a new team, so send resumes.)
    6. Read the funniest thing ever written: http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html
    7. Buy this album: http://www.amazon.com/Fillmore-East-Frank-Zappa-Mothers/dp/B0000009S9/

    Cheers,

    Andy

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    Posted by: John Jantsch on Aug 22, 07 | 6:06 am
    Category: Branding, word of mouth | Tags:

    Comments
    • That's just terrific...I've used wit in my vacation messages but mine haven't held a candle to the one you shared. And I appreciate you inviting us to consider how to extend our brand even into ubiquitous notes like this.

      I'd love your thinking on other places we miss branding opportunities and hope to see future posts like this one...short in digestion, long on message.
    • I love this... great small way to make a good impression during an otherwise upsetting moment.
    • Zane
      Great note. It could only come from Andy.

      But camping...Andy...that's a YouTube video waiting to happen.
    • Nice to know I'm not the only one who has "unprofessional" out of the office replies.

      My subject is always "Out of the Cube" because I'm an honest kind of guy.

      Life is too short to have boring, out of the office template style memos!

      Cheers to keeping it fun...
    • Hate to disagree with you again, but in my opinion "Most of the time branding comes down to paying attention to the littlest details and putting them into the littlest things" is wrong. For a different view of branding, pls take a look at "Everything You Need To Know About Branding On One Little Page" at www.adcontrarian.com
    • This creative way of adding to the overall brand image is pure genius.

      I agree that most of the time branding comes down to paying attention to the little details. A brand has to hold a USP or competitive advantage in this ever increasing competitive arena. Just look at Innocent and how it is the little things that add to the overall persona.

      It is the little things that add to the brands culture, values and characterisitcs. Remember if a brand has no values it is worthless.
    • What a great example - thanks! It shows providing value even when out of the office. Very nice.
    • Whoa!

      Just got back from vacation and saw all this talk about me. Fantastic!

      The lesson to everyone: Have fun.

      Cheers,

      Andy
    • Great information that you would not normally think of. Andy, I hope you had a great vacation and didn't have too many calls!
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