Q: What is your favorite example of clever marketing?

A: I was driving on Interstate 75 through Georgia one day a few years back and I noticed a lot of billboards for restaurants. On the bottom skirt of these boards, most had the phrase “tour buses welcome”. But then I saw one that really stood out. The bottom skirt read “free lunch for tour bus drivers.” Now where do you think tour bus drivers are going to stop?

Q: What makes a great brand?

A: How a company treats its customers makes a brand powerful. That’s even more so now with the Internet. Word gets out fast when you treat your customers right—or wrong.

The most famous example has to be this: In 1975, a man in Alaska returned two snow tires to the Nordstrom department store and asked for a refund which he was promptly given. Nothing outstanding there, until you learn that Nordstrom has never sold tires!

The result? Nordstrom has become synomous with superb customer service.

Q: Where do you like to travel?

Asia is my fascination. It started with a company trip to attend a Worldwide Partners meeting in Bangkok. I met some Americans from California who visited every year and I have since joined them regularly. Last year, I made a side trip to China for the first time and saw first-hand what an emerging economy and consumer market looks like. In pioneer days, “go west, young man” was the adage. Today, it might very well be, “go far east, young man.”