Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose

Is the title of Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh's book out today.

You have to admire the entrepreneur mind of Hsieh who at a young age was making money from his business ventures. Barely out of Harvard and at his first job, Hsieh is bored working for someone else. So he quits and not long after he would sell his company, LinkExchange,to Yahoo for $265 million dollars.

So what does a guy in his mid twenties with a pocket full of cash do? Whatever he wants! He dabbles in day trading, invests in a movie and sets up a company to provide financing to start up companies. He soon finds himself spending more time with one of those investment companies, Zappos, an online company that sells shoes. Not the greatest model for a business. People need to try shoes on!

And the early years are tough on Zappos and Hsieh finds his nest egg quickly dwindling and Zappos needs a cash infusion. So Hsieh sells his condo at a loss to keep Zappos going. Blind faith perhaps.

Zappos is an unorthodox company. Where else do they offer new hires a $2000 bonus to quit if they haven't bought into the Zappos culture. Hsieh put company culture above all else. He invested in the personal development of his employees and gave his customer service reps more freedom than at a typical call center.

As Hseih puts it, "they are not in the shoe and accessory business, they are in the customer service business". And better service would translate into lots of repeat customers, which would mean low marketing expenses, long-term profits, and fast growth.

The proof is in the pudding. Zappos was sold to Amazon this year for a billion dollars.

And when you read the 10 core values that make up the Zappos culture, you know they practice what they preach.

1. Deliver WOW through service
2. Embrace and drive change
3. Create Fun and a little weirdness
4. Be adventurous, creative and open-minded
5. Pursue growth and learning
6. Build open and honest relationships with communication
7. Build a positive team and family spirit
8. Be more with less
9. Be passionate and determined
10. Be humble

What would your business look like if you embraced those 10 principals? Click here to learn more about Delivering Happiness.

Tony Mariani

Free or is there a hook

You see them on websites. Enter your name and email and you can download a white paper.

Is it the best way to capture emails to build your data base? I am not a fan and agree with David Meerman Scott. Scott prefers ebooks. And he knows what he is talking about. He figures his ebook, "What Matters Now", has been downloaded a million times.


Tony Mariani

Advertising phrases I wish would die

1. Everything must go.
2. We will not be undersold.
3. If you don't find it here they don't make it.
4. Your chance to win $50,000 if you buy a car this weekend.
5. I had to buy 400 of them so I could offer them to you at this price.

That was just this morning on my ride to work.

Tony Mariani

Social media bandwagon

It is the new black of advertising.

And it's not going anywhere soon. The social media list is growing everyday and you may be struggling with, "do I or don't" get on board.

Social media is work. You just don't jump on the bandwagon and the money comes rolling in. Social media is real time. It's now.

The Wizard of Ads, Roy Williams says, "all the amount of advertising in the world will not fix the problems you have inside your place of business".

So no matter what you decide about social media, somebody still has to buy something. Will you give them an okay buying experience or a wow buying experience.

Tony Mariani

Billboard faux pas

The rule of thumb for billboard messages is clean and very few words.

You be the judge on this.

Don't buy the idea that next time you see the ad you will pay more attention. You would need superman vision to make out the text.

This board is just to busy. Billboards should be one thought, theme or call to action.



Tony Mariani

Trust me

That line was followed by, "there has never been a better time to buy". The radio ad for a Chrysler dealer running all weekend on more than one radio station.

Image that, a car dealer voicing his own radio ads and coming off like..a car salesman.

This car dealer should be asking his buying customers why they bought from him and consider using that as his message. All things being equal in the new car buying business, promises and statements like that don't resonate.

You might as well tell me you have a bridge to sell me too.

Tony Mariani

Slap chop or the blitzhacker

Before there was Vince Shlomi with the slap chop,



there was the blitzhacker from K-Tel.



There are a lot of imitators but nobody beats K-tel.