Have you ever seen the J. Peterman Catalog?
It's perhaps the most interesting Catalog you'll ever see.
The don't even call it a Catalog....they call it an "Owner's Manual".
On the inside front cover, there's a single word headline:
***Philosophy.
"People want things that are hard to find.
Things that have romance, but a factual romance, about them.
I had this proven to me all over again when people actually stopped me in the street (in New York, in Tokyo, in London) to ask me where I got the coat I was wearing.
So many people tried to buy my coat off my back that I've started a small company to make them available.
It seems like everybody (well, not everybody) has always wanted a classic horseman's duster but never knew exactly where to get one.
I ran a little ad in the New Yorker and the Wall Street Journal and in a few months sold this wonderful coat in cities all over the country and to celebrities and to a mysterious gentleman in Japan who ordered two thousand of them.
Well, the coat is magnificent. Simple, functional, handsome, extremely well made, affordable and, yes, romantic.
I think that giant American Corporations should start asking themselves if the things they make are really, I mean really, better than the ordinary.
Clearly, people want things that make their lives the way they wish they were."***
That philosophy, and the personality of J Peterman, have built one of the most talked about catalogs in the world.
Another example is one of my favorite places to go in San Francisco -- Max's Opera Cafe.
They have REALLY good deserts...the Niagara Cake is my favorite. (I can taste it now. YUM. I wonder if they SHIP?)
The environment is fantastic, and most of the servers are performers who take turns performing throughout the night.
Anyway...the place has Character...and it starts on the menu menu when your read a full page of "Max's Laws".
(Click on this and you can see a bigger version)
It makes you feel like someone is behind all of this.
Someone who cares enough about your experience that he won't stand for his staff asking stupid questions like "is everything alright".
Who's the author of your Story?
Does your business HAVE a Story?
I think there's a big opportunity to tell your story, and put your fingerprint on your company...even if you're building a "They" business where other people are going to be delivering the front line experience.
I'd love to hear YOUR story.
I'm sure you'd love to hear mine.
Let's work on them...and share.