Arbutus Coaching’s Blog

Welcome to Because Life Isn’t a Dress Rehearsal, a blog written by life and business coach Kathy Santini, owner of Arbutus Coaching. This blog contains coaching tips and advice to help you become the most self actualized, effective person you can be, both personally and professionally. If you’re serious about “growing your possibilities,” and transforming your life, then you’re in the right place. My goal in writing this blog is to help you create a life that is easier, bigger, richer and more rewarding than the life you’re living now. So let’s get started shall we, because life isn’t a dress rehearsal and time’s a wastin’.

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Business Success Strategies – Creating Buzz For Your Business or What Are Your Customers Saying About You?

By arbutuscoaching | September 16, 2009

I just returned from five days in Portland and Seattle, where I discovered the most fantastic business. Actually, it found me, twice. When my cousin Sharon learned I was going to Portland she told me to check out Voodoo Donuts. Fade to two days later when I found myself walking along a street in old town Portland. I looked up and saw a huge lineup coming out of a storefront that said, you guessed it, “Voodoo Donuts.”

As a life, business and results coaching and a student of success, I’m always on the lookout for what works and why. We waited 15 minutes to choose from the wildest assortment of donuts I’ve ever seen: the company’s namesake, the voodoo donut, a voodoo doll shaped donut with a pretzel sticking out of its middle; donuts covered in fruit loops, or donuts covered in maple syrup and covered with two slices of bacon.

What makes this business so successful? First, they’re incredibly unusual and original. I don’t know of any other donut shop that has the weird and wacky array of donuts that Voodoo Donuts does. This caters to the huge segment of the population who buck being mainstream. A cohort who wants whatever they purchase to be unusual so that they can use it for fodder around the water cooler on Monday morning. Second, Voodoo Donuts does more than create a product, they create an experience. The first experience I’ve already alluded to: the weird and wacky selection. And if that doesn’t wow you, consider entering their donut eating contest on the first Friday of the month. For the romantics in the group, Voodoo Donuts offers weddings, commitment ceremonies or fake weddings at both of their locations. And for those who can’t finance a trip to Indonesia, there’s the annual spring time cock fight, which they don’t give many details about. An enigma wrapped in a mystery to quote Churchill.

In short, because of their unique offerings, their clients are doing what advertising companies or public relations professionals of old would have done for them and in a much bigger, more effective way. Their clients, to misquote Frank Sinatra ever so slightly, have started spreading the news. Voodoo Donuts has gone viral, in every sense of the word.

Which leads me to the question all business owners should be continually asking themselves about their businesses: what are your customers saying about you? To learn more about Voodoo donuts, visit: www.voodoodoughnut.com

Topics: Business Success |

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