A smile is worth a thousand bob!

Yesterday I happened to attend a meeting at that big hotel across from Kencom. The first thing that struck me was how intensively friendly the staff was. I excused the first guy but I noticed that the trend was similar across board. Every single staff member that I came across greeted me with a smile and were ready to assist on the spot. To the point that I felt like a king.

Now, check into any supermarket where you will find promotional sales personnel and the story is completely different. A large majority just stand there with gloomy faces waiting for the payroll to check in. On many instances I have stood right next to them and purchased goods from the competition without them uttering a single word.

Brands have personalities and this should flow wherever the brand is. If the people who represent your brand have a negative a.t.t then I guess it will influence the purchaser. The hotel I spoke about has completely changed my earlier perceptions towards it as I found it rather intimidating in the past maybe due to its sheer size and the customers who are associated with it. But yesterday all of that changed and I can see myself considering it on my list for places to spoil myself all due to a few gestures of friendliness.

Back to the supermarkets. I think its worth marketing and advertising personnel to pull some ninja stunts once in a while for the people in charge of on ground activations. I tell you, you would be shocked. There is always a good side to everything though and the first brand that comes into my mind when it comes to in-store activations is Lifebuoy. They have gone as far as giving their girls some outfits that really stand out and cannot be ignored. You are drawn to them quite easily as opposed to someone in a branded t-shirt cringing.

Its so disappointing that you even get scared of the ones offering free samples of edibles. She looks like she just had a domestic with her boyfriend and could be thinking that all men are just the same ....."EEEK!I could be poisoned, run little copywriter, run!"

But hey, that's just my opinion.