Fun packaging that speaks directly to me. This is always a top delight of mine. The message sets up an experience designed for you.

You, or the priority segment of “Babe”, is likely a young trendy woman, not much later than her 21st birthday. While cute and appealing, the “love you, miss you, hate you” is just a tad dated term of endearment, but still it’s the thought that counts. While the boastful spirit of the brand turned me off at first, I then thought this segment may be attracted to a cocky personality.

At the same time, I can imagine the brand is scooping up women who over indulge as “Rose with Bubbles” delivers 2x the percent alcohol per volume than the Hard Seltzers category, including Truly. Unlike Truly, or even High Noon, the vodka seltzer, BABE doesn’t disclose calories on their packaging.

With the cute packaging, so similar to these other seltzer brands, women are bound to believe these are also 100 calories. I’m sure an intentional choice by the brand.

Not quite sure yet if these will stand out in the crowd of hard seltzers, but if you open the box, you’ll at least smile for a moment.

Yes, I bought shape wear. Not ashamed. I’m a professional woman. Today’s post is about the CRM program in which I don’t remember giving an opt-in. By the way, thank you unsubscribe apps.

With that however, with a subject line from Honey Love like “Welcome to the family, Megan” it struck me and I’m not opting out soon. The note is personal from the CEO as she explains her background from a long time back. As she shared about her career as a professional DJ she starts, I first wasn’t relating. This was until she shared her experience as a performer in front of thousands with her shape wear riding up, and most awfully, all us women know, rolling at the waist.

So yeah, I know, it’s annoying, but that’s a con we accept as we try to look our best. It’s a compromise we decide is acceptable. So remarkable is that Honey Love has tapped into the insight of insecurity, with a garment, specifically made to make us feel more secure.

It’s a delight to hear something real, that taps not only into my own experience, but the feeling I now only realize it gave me. Honey Love knew what I needed before I needed it.

A delightful gift from Zinus in my package of dog stairs for my high sofa. Don’t tease. That’s relevant because a special note from Zinus enclosed starts:

“Wow. We really love what you’ve done with the place, and we’re feeling pretty honored to be part of your home. Thank you for putting us under the same roof with the things and people you love most. We don’t take that lightly”

“…We hate to waste anything, including this card. So, please slide off this green band and send this card on to…someone ecstatic to receive…”

I’m a big believer in the basics of etiquette; writing thank yous’ for mailing, and not only for showers or weddings. In fact, I wrote many to our customer advocates at end of year. Print is not dead.

I’m engaged and delighted. I feel a personal bond to Zinus now because their personality is so clear. I’ll be sending one of these cards to them.

What’s one of the most current colloquial phrases expressed with grief? Ughh, that’s not on Netflix. No fear, notonnetflix.com is here to save the day AKA Tubi.

Read this here first, but then Google the Tubi “Cheat on Netflix” campaign and their latest “Therapy”.

I personally have Hulu and Amazon Prime to supplement my Netflix as more and more classics and current television shows, and movies, are being replaced by original series and films. The shift of Netflix to an “original” content strategy is debated as a smart move to fill in where cable was meeting needs. And since no one is subscribing to cable anymore, content has been the new differentiation strategy for Netflix from Hulu and Amazon and now Disney Plus, among others.

While this wasn’t intended to be a review of streaming services here – mainly because I can’t do a position any justice in only a blog- I did want to leave you with this: notonnexflix.com will always be relevant. No matter if Netflix grows or falls off.

Yet, unfortunately, Netflix is becoming a Kleenex or Chapstick – a ubiquitous generic term. This makes me cry, but to see the competition ride it brings me much delight!

I recently saw the new McCormick campaign, yes the spice brand, you never remember until you see it, but it’s iconic at the same time – never changed over time.

With that, I was pleasantly surprised to see their new Cinnamon creative and campaign on Instagram – it stood out to me immediately. I would have never imagined this brand to be clever and delightful.

The tag line: Pumpkin Spice? I never heard of her.

Another tag line: I eat cinnamon because pumpkin is a vegetable.

I naturally engaged and dove deeper into a century old spice brand’s page. That’s an oxymoron for sure! I was soon disappointed to find the campaign was about recognizing women named Cinnamon. Because, where’s the connection to Pumpkin Spice Latte anymore?! A major disconnect.

While disappointing, I certainly had to explore more of their “blog-like” landing page to view more creative. They’re trying. Smart. Turns out there is even another layer. What?

I find women named Cinnamon need to be celebrated for their spicy, sassy attitude and the pride of their name. And they need clothes as unique as them…

Yawn! All for female power and celebrating any size – hey I’m size 10-12, but this campaign is too complex for any consumer to find their way to the cute tees and bags.

McCormick’s horizontal strategy, or is vertical – I don’t even know strategy – into a clothing line with major advertising dollars and inventory to boot is going to prove a poor investment.

Especially since it appeals to women named the #14,046 on the popular name list in the babycenter.com rankings. It is however certainly intriguing and a bold move!

A friendly and gracious welcome to the area with enthusiastic wishes for my stay. A simple extension to reach out for customer service is a nice touch.

The objective however is to inform of the window washing occurring this week. The note is surrounded by above average thought compared to other short notices of disruption which can be felt as cold and unapologetic.

While not personalized by addressing my name, which would have been perfect, it did provide me confidence in the rest of my stay going smooth – which is always a delight.

You’d likely think I initiated the first email given the RE: in the subject line. Nope!

Response rates for traditional emails range widely from 3 to as high as 34%. The high range represents personalization, relevant, and customized content, including subject lines. This engagement strategy requires much hypothesis testing, learning, refinement and optimization. The low likely results in poor content management and subject lines that are not valuable.

I couldn’t find any research to estimate this reply tactic. Perhaps >34% is my best guess given the relevancy to my industry.

Either way, this is a sneaky and a tacky attempt to create an action of open. I didn’t click through or even read more than headline. I imagine click through rate is <1%.

Is the open, generating more awareness worth the low engagement in content. I don’t believe so. Click through to a free offer, discount or more robust information relevant for customer is the ultimate marketing goal for email.

Sneaky, poor taste. No thank you!

It’s my birthday today so no other fitting treat to mark a healthier year, than to add organic, nothing added, baby food to…my meal plan!

There’s really not much to this package of goodness in terms of nutrition, but it’s certainly healthy, easy, and surprisingly filling. Other varietals do contain a bigger kick of vitamins.

Let’s get to the point. This treat has the sweetest packaging:

Little Bites. Big Impact: Train Tiny Taste Buds with Delightful Flavors.

It’s adorable and creates a sense of whimsy and more importantly, sense of relief for the sleepy mom preparing for the fussy, messy time of feeding. The brand choice motivates mom to come back after feeling confident this meal can make life so much easier – that’s a repeat customer if I ever did see one.

Simply delightful.

An interesting model for motivation, engagement and driver of brand loyalty. Crowdsourcing brings creativity in from the outside. Allows for the latest trends to be spot. It’s demonstrates innovation, especially in a fashion brand, where getting ahead of trends of customers needs is a key to success. And indeed establishes a competitive position.

Crowdsourcing limits the amount of pay to creatives and speeds up time to development, moving quickly through inspiration and creation stages of development and even garners opportunities to learn about distribution models.

There are always risks. It requires constant monitoring and relies on the population and skills of the existing customer base. It can also become a legal nightmare if the upfront mitigation of risk isn’t thoughtfully planned. Intellectual property rights can get messy. So while it saves resources in many places, crowdsourcing needs to balanced with backend operations.

My opinion: DO! Staying ahead with flexibility and being adaptable supports any new organization, like Betabrand here, a leg up on competition and provides even more innovation at a fast moving start up.

Who remembers coupon codes by the time we’re ready to check out? Especially when they came in email.

Clicking through an promotional email can be cumbersome – removing one barrier adds points for me! And $$$ off!

The email click automatically adds the code to your shopping cart.

With the timer here, would you feel a sense of urgency too?