Image Matters

I've been interviewing senior-level marketing candidates for a position on the leadership team of a local firm. This individual will report directly into the President/CEO and will be responsible for guiding the organization's strategy and marketplace presence.

One candidate, who we liked immensely, sent gorgeous cards to both the CEO and me. Beautiful, gold embossed cards inside of which she inserted a nondescript, poorly written, two sentence, typed note on a scrap of paper that was literally ripped (i.e., not nicely cut) from a piece of white copier paper.

No time like the present to conserve paper. And time. It wasn't even personalized to us, the job or the company.

If we hired her, can we expect the Marketing Plan to be written in crayon?

Christmas "Songs"

Years ago, when I worked as a consultant for a small agency in White Plains NY, we had our holiday party aboard the World Yacht circling Manhattan. On this evening, we all received the final gifts from our Secret Santas and I was pretty pumped because mine had been showering me with fantabulous gifts all month.

I received a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas CD.

I almost feel I could end this post right here except that there are people out there who consider Mannheim Steamroller "music." I'm not one of them. Honestly, I couldn't even make out the tunes of the otherwise famous songs which, when rendered by other "artists," are legible, singable, whistleable, etc.

So I wrapped it nicely and kindly sent it to my brother who fondly re-gifted it back to me the following Christmas with fake, yet compelling, cover art, "Tim and Leigh's favorite songs of the year." Wow. A huge letdown two years running.

I still have this CD just waiting to be unleashed on some poor, unsuspecting loser who secretly loves grand crescendos/raucous elevator music/awful electronica mayhem/polluting noise (a.k.a. total CRAP).

It reminds me of the musical version of our agency's fax machine at the time -- which our boss' hysterical executive admin threw in the dumpster in the parking lot one day with a big sign stating, "piece of sh*t."

Anyhoo, it's the thought that counts, right? I just wonder what the thought was . . .

Lastly, for anyone who noticed my excessive use of "quotation marks," please refer to this site which I now love.