Out of Alignment?

When it comes to hospitality, I think of the South, not the Southwest.

Which is why, even though the folks are Sky Harbor in Phoenix are perfectly pleasant, the airport's tagline "America's Friendliest Airport" doesn't ring true.

Phoenix is my home and I'm a city booster, but the alignment is off. As a result, the slogan is not believable.

Most associate Arizona with sunshine and golf and sunsets and cactus.

Should someone in city marketing rethink our brand?

http://skyharbor.com/customerservice/americasFriendliestAirport.html

Beautiful Voice.

Truly gifted writers bring their own unique voice to whatever they write, in whatever format.

Cheryl Strayed, author of the best-seller Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail is once such writer.

Her voice is distinctive and authentic, powerful and moving.

Her book Tiny Beautiful Things, Advice on Love and Life From Dear Sugar, a collection of advice columns, wrest the form from frumpiness.

To wit, in a multi-page reply to a devastated woman who miscarried: "It's a place of montrous beauty and endless dark and glimmering light. You have to work really, really hard to get there, but you can do it. Your ability to get there is evident to me in every word of your bright shining grief star of a letter."

Those words are a balm, a healing balm, from a fierce writer with an unmistakable voice.  

 

When the Words are the Picture.

I'm loving Crate & Barrel's new TV ads. 

They are free of visuals, using only words and great music to telegraph their branding.  And, of course, their recognizeable typeface.

Like Target, they can do less with more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/business/media/a-crate-barrel-campaign-with-an-emphasis-on-the.html?_r=0