The Pow! book enjoyed the glow of a good review this week from Kevin Tumlinson and his RandomBits blog. More than just the kind words though, what makes this more gratifying is that my"Little Things Mean a Lot" story about Christmas chocolates in line at Chapters bookstore inspired Kevin to come up with an associated story and Pow! moment of his own. To wit:
"For some reason, when I read this story, it brought up a memory
from about fifteen years ago. I was at an Earth Day concert with a girl
I'd been dating for a few months. We were still young enough in our
relationship that I had let her convince me to see a live performance
of Lisa Loeb.
"That day, the temperature was certainly in the triple digits, and the sun was brutal. People were being carted out in ambulances. Random concert goers were bursting into flame. And, of course, the vendors saw this as an opportunity to rake everyone over the glowing coals that made up the parking lot at our feet.
"Water, suddenly the most in-demand substance around, was selling in small, two-ounce bottles for a startling five dollars per. Also, they ran out of water around the end of hour two of the ten-hour sweat-fest.
"So, what does this have to do with free chocolate at a Chapters bookstore? I was just thinking, what if some enterprising company had said, "Hey, people like to live! Let's go buy a truck load of ice-cold bottled water, park our company-branded truck out front of this huge gathering of people, and give out free bottles to anyone who comes by!"
"Imagine if they'd had the foresight to get vanity bottles, and put their name and Web address on them. Imagine if they'd done this while asking nothing in return, with maybe the hearty slogan of, "Continue to live...compliments of Kevin." Or insert the name of someone or something YOU'D like promote...
"Imagine that...marketing through courtesy. That's certainly a surprise. I'd love to see more of it."
"That day, the temperature was certainly in the triple digits, and the sun was brutal. People were being carted out in ambulances. Random concert goers were bursting into flame. And, of course, the vendors saw this as an opportunity to rake everyone over the glowing coals that made up the parking lot at our feet.
"Water, suddenly the most in-demand substance around, was selling in small, two-ounce bottles for a startling five dollars per. Also, they ran out of water around the end of hour two of the ten-hour sweat-fest.
"So, what does this have to do with free chocolate at a Chapters bookstore? I was just thinking, what if some enterprising company had said, "Hey, people like to live! Let's go buy a truck load of ice-cold bottled water, park our company-branded truck out front of this huge gathering of people, and give out free bottles to anyone who comes by!"
"Imagine if they'd had the foresight to get vanity bottles, and put their name and Web address on them. Imagine if they'd done this while asking nothing in return, with maybe the hearty slogan of, "Continue to live...compliments of Kevin." Or insert the name of someone or something YOU'D like promote...
"Imagine that...marketing through courtesy. That's certainly a surprise. I'd love to see more of it."
Well Kevin, the best way to see more of it is to do it yourself.
What are you, or ANY of you out there, waiting for?
