A few months back I had a long conversation with the editor of Event Marketer on the subject of random acts of kindness. Their story on this topic ran in the April issue and featured Renegade’s long-running HSBC BankCab program. With Absolut Vodka promoting random acts of “Absolut Kindness” around London (as reported by PSFK), I figured it would be worth sharing the notes from my call with Event Marketer:
One could argue that it is more important than ever for companies and brands to show their good side. With Wall St. crumbling, Main Street welcomes every act of kindness regardless of the source. That said, like everything in marketing, some acts work better than others. In 2007, there was spurt of Random Acts including random visits from 76ers in Philly to “Pass the Cheer” ecards from Starbucks to “Be Hospitable” acts from Hilton. Arguably, none of these provided any lasting value for the brands. And there’s the rub. If they are truly random and just a brief moment in time, the consumer quickly forgets. For random acts to work, they need to be consistently delivered and of course, quickly become the opposite of random.
Marketers who embrace “random acts” do so at their own risk. The fundamental premise of “random acts of kindness” is to do something to make another feel good while expecting absolutely nothing in return, not even gratitude. Marketing by definition is about ROI, building brand preference, sales and repeat purchase. Thus random acts that are truly random and unbranded have limited impact on the brand and those acts of kindness that are well branded are simply not considered random. So the key here is not to worry about the random and focus on the kindness. That is the very notion behind Marketing as Service. I would argue that Samsung’s charging stations in airports are as a welcome act of kindness as any offered by any marketer.
The bottom line is that consistency carries the day. Random acts might generate a quick PR hit but everyday acts of service in one form or another will actually attract and maintain paying customers.