Ministry Marketing CoachMinistry Branding and Marketing that Works

Recently, my in-laws came to town to spend a few days with the family. While they were here, we decided to go out and grab some ice cream at the Marble Slab Creamery.

My mother-in-law decided to venture out and order their White Chocolate flavor which looked good, but tasted like hair spray! Normally, Marble Slab Creamery has great products. Pricey, but tasty. This time, however, someone must have misread the recipe and it tasted like a .99 cent can of hair spray. As a sanity check, several within our party conducted a taste test. Yep, it was confirmed.

My mother-in-law insisted that we not say anything and that she would just tolerate it. I would have none of it. I figure if you are going to pay $5 for a scoop of ice cream, it should at least get close to tasting as advertised.

To be straight up with you, I seem to gravitate toward these situations. I’m always the one who gets the rock in my beans, the hair in my soup or the main entree that’s well done when I request medium rare. It just happens. I’m a hopeless magnet for consumer calamities in the making.

I’ve gotten used to it, though. In fact, I now see it as my golden opportunity to learn more about branding and to get a snapshot into the internal culture of an organization.

But, I digress. Back to the story.

I kindly spoke to the attendant about the problem and she agreed that other customers had expressed concerns about this flavor but said, “that’s just the way ours tastes.” There was no apology, no offer for a replacement. Nothing. Argh.

Knowing that my mother-in-law would rather not escalate the situation, we acquiesced and she dutifully consumed her Hair Spray ice cream.

I know what you’re thinking. Isn’t this really a quality control issue, customer service issue or perhaps an employee training problem, not a branding one?

Yes and no.

The problem may have originated with a bad flavor being released or with the young girl not being properly trained or empowered to simply offer a different flavor to any customer who is dissatisfied. But ultimately, this is a branding problem.

Every exchange is a brand encounter and provides an opportunity for your church or ministry to leave a good taste in the mouths of those you encounter. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. ;)

What should have been a hassle-free, no-debate, no questions asked, no haggle exchange ended up being a missed opportunity for Marble Slab Creamery. It was only one scoop. What’s so hard or too expensive about that?

Think about it this way.

Marble Slab Creamery had a great opportunity to handle themselves in a way that could have resulted in the most powerful type of branding on the planet, word-of-mouth marketing. They could have positively won a fan and further reinforced their uniqueness. Instead, they not only flushed that opportunity, but they also provided me with a great blog post that tens of thousands of people will read.

That’s just how branding works.

When you do something right, it’s like a new dad with his newborn baby. He simply tells everyone. That’s just the way it is. He’s pumped and he really doesn’t care if you share his excitement or not. You are going to hear about it!

When you do something wrong, however, it’s like giving the blue haired town gossip snoop some fresh juicy scoop. You are going to hear about it!

Takeaway #1: Every interaction you have with people in your church or ministry represents an opportunity to either gain a fan or lose one. Regardless of the medium—be it face-to-face, phone, email, Twitter, etc., HOW you interact with them really matters.

Takeaway #2: If you unintentionally give them Hair Spray flavored ice cream when they are expecting White Chocolate, don’t hesitate for 5 seconds to make it right. They WILL tell.

Takeaway #3: Convert every negative situation into an opportunity for positive interaction.