‘The Gift’
9 inch axiom: Lagniappe
‘a little something extra for the customer should be the rule and not the exception’
In my last post I mentioned the idea of lagniappe as part of my ritual sign off. Lagniappe is a hybrid creole word and phonetically speaking its pronounced lan-yap. [Sidebar - Does anyone else think its ironic that phonetic doesn't start with an "F"?] Lagniappe combines the French ‘la’ meaning the with the Spanish ‘napa’ meaning gift. In New Orleans it represents the small gift a merchant gives at the time of purchase, ie. for the baker to throw in an extra beignet when the customer purchased a dozen. The parishioners of NOLA took the phrase to heart and broadened the definition to include anytime ‘a little something extra’ was given.
Check out this quote from Mark Twain from ‘Life on the Mississippi’:
“We picked up one excellent word–a word worth traveling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word–’lagniappe.’ It is Spanish–so they said. We discovered it at the head of a column of odds and ends in the Picayune, the first day; heard twenty people use it the second; inquired what it meant the third; adopted it and got facility in swinging it the fourth. It has a restricted meaning, but I think the people spread it out a little when they choose. It is the equivalent of the thirteenth roll in a ‘baker’s dozen.’ It is something thrown in, gratis, for good measure”
Question- Who doesn’t like a little something extra? Answer: Nobody.
The idea of lagniappe can be applied to almost any type of business. Retail business . . . no brainer, service business . . . a prerequisite. There is an old Chinese proverb that says, “A man without a smile should not open shop”. I think the 2.0 version should be, “A man without a smile and the sense ‘to give a little extra’ should not open shop”. Where is the ‘lagniappe in your marketing?
Would love to see some comments? Any good examples of lagniappe from either the giving or receiving end?
Today’s Lagniappe on the lagniappe post: This is a bit of trivia about the translation of Las Vegas. 99.2% of Americans have no clue what it means. Before I give the real translation I usually offer that I know a little Spanish and that the translation is ‘The Vegas’. The real translation is ‘The Meadows’. Go figure.
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The goal of marketing is to capture the mind and ultimately conquer the heart of your target audience.
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LOVE “The Vegas” translation…..right up there with the “the nuts….they’re complimentary”.
All good stuff!
Now you’ve forced me to tell the joke.
Guy walks into a bar. He’s sitting there all by himself when he suddenly hears, “Hey . . . I really like your shirt”. He looks all around and sees no one. He shrugs it off until about a minute later when he catches, “That’s a nice haircut on you”. About a minute later the bartender finally resurfaces from the back room. The guy calls him over and says, “I thinking I might be losing it as I just heard a couple of nice remarks about my shirt and haircut”. The bartender laughs and points to a bowl on the bar, “Oh . . . it’s the nuts – they’re complimentary”.
Stan – Even though “Shopper Marketing” wasn’t about this, it triggered me to think about what people’s motives really are when they consider life insurance. So I added the following to responses we email to inquiries that we receive:
We salute you for considering life insurance protection. You are the “buyer”, but your survivors – your loved ones – will be the “end users” of this unselfish action.
So even though I’m 10 inches off the focus of your blurb, thanks for making me think! It hurts my head, but thanks anyway!
Hey, if I opened a brick & mortar store where people could drop off their life policies and allow me to (almost always) save them money, do you think anybody would come?
Finally, us life insurance guys are all nuts, but they pay us well, and widows are grateful that we badgered their dead husbands (when alive) to protect themselves. Stan, there is no one with more endurance than the man that sells insurance.