"Cause-Marketing" Can Work

A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Puppet
Mannequin American views and guidelines on marketing/PR trends, news from the world of puppets and ventriloquism, bits of humor and other interesting but useless information. I post every Tuesday and Friday.
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"Cause-Marketing" by KFC Improves Streets
While KFC seems more suited to filling pot pies than filling potholes, don't be surprised if you see Col. Sanders out fixing your streets.

In an unusual cause-marketing push, KFC is tackling the pothole problem in Louisville, Ky. and other cities in exchange for stamping the fresh pavement with "Re-freshed by KFC."  

"This program is a perfect example of that rare and optimal occurrence when a company can creatively market itself and help local governments and everyday Americans across the country," said Javier Benito, exec VP-marketing and food innovation at KFC. Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson noted in a statement that budgets are tight for cities across the country, and finding funding for road repairs is a dirty job. "It's great to have a concerned corporation like KFC create innovative private/public partnerships like this pothole refresh program."

While these efforts are unlikely to sell chicken sandwiches in the short term, KFC is likely to build a reservoir of goodwill among the general population ... particularly when they arrive at the pothole they've gotten used to swerving around. It also benefits employee morale, recruitment and retention.

In addition to the Louisville project, KFC has issued an open offer to U.S. mayors to tell them about the state of their city streets and request assistance. The chain will select as many as four more cities at random for pothole assistance. I hope someone has notified Milwaukee's mayor of this offer. As you can see below, our potholes are getting a little out of hand.

Free Golf Clubs! ... Maybe

Golfsmith, a golf-equipment retailer, is running a nationwide promotion promising to refund the amount of money customers pay for a TaylorMade driver if Spain's Sergio Garcia wins The Masters next month.

There's no catch. If you head to one of Golfsmith's 73 superstores across the country, go online to http://www.golfsmith.com/ or call toll free to purchase one of three new drivers from TaylorMade by April 11 -- the R9, the r7 Limited or the Burner 09 -- you can fill out a form and have the purchase price fully refunded by Golfsmith if Garcia wins The Masters.

And these drivers aren't cheap ... one sells for $299.99, the other two are $399.99.

Simple math dictates that for every 3,000 or so drivers sold, Golfsmith stands to lose $1 million. (Don't worry, they've purchased insurance.)

The promotion aims to pump up sagging golf-equipment sales for Golfsmith and for TaylorMade, the second-largest golf manufacturer in the world behind Callaway.

TaylorMade, however, is not part of the promotion and is not on the hook for refunding any monies should Garcia win The Masters.  

Speaking of Golf ...
I like golf ... probably because my grandfather was a fairway wood.

Anyway, is it just me or is this photo of Phil Mickelson just a bit comical?

Tips for Reducing Meeting Time and Improving Meeting Productivity

If you're serious about reducing the amount of time you spend in meetings and making the time you spend in meetings more productive, here are some good tips. If they don't work, I'll be happy to give you a refund.

1. Require preparation. Those who call for the meeting must give people things to read or do before the meeting. If no agenda or other materials are handed out before hand, there is no meeting.  (And if someone in the meeting hasn't read the material ahead of time, kick them out.)
2. Remove all the chairs from the conference room. I'm serious. You'll be amazed at how much faster and more productive your meetings will be.
3. Bring an egg timer to the meeting. When it goes off, you're done. Not your fault, it's the timer's.
4. The organizer of the meeting is required to send a short email summary, with action items, to every attendee within 30 minutes of the end of the meeting. (People are less likely to call a meeting if they know they'll be on the hook as the person responsible for follow-up.)
5. Create a public space (either a big piece of poster board or a simple online page) that allows attendees to rate meetings and their organizers on a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of usefulness. Just a simple box where everyone can write a number. Watch what happens.

Trees Talk Too ...
This is so embarrassing that I almost didn't include it. Who would have thought that putting a ventriloquist on an LP was a good idea? (LP ... short for Long Playing vinyl record.) Not to mention the lame title, "Trees Talk Too." Really?! Plus, even though I'm a fellow-Mannequin American, Ricky sort of creeps me out.

I guess you have to use your imagination and "picture" Geraldine's lips moving as she sings "He Touched Me" on side two. My guess is that "Ricky" ended up committing suicide after this. As I said, it's embarrassing.