When Dave Grohl refilled a fan’s empty beer, he was building his brand.
He didn’t do it for the PR.
He did it because it felt like the right thing to do. He was hosting a party (okay, a concert) and one of his friends (okay, his fans) had an empty drink. Dave just refilled it. Sure, he stopped the show and refilled the beer from the stage with 20,000 people watching. But he was just doing the right thing.
Airlines get a lot of negative press, but this week one particular airline got some very positive press for just doing the right thing.
Near the end of a 14 hour flight from Vancouver to Sydney, Australia, Air Canada pilot Andrew Robertson received a distress signal. Nearly 37,000 feet below the Boeing 777, a yacht was adrift, damaged from a storm, and fighting vicious waves. Captain Robertson brought his big jet down to 4,000 feet above the sea, and asked the 270 passengers on board to scan the ocean below for signs of life. A passenger brought a pair of binoculars up to the cockpit to help with the search. Within 25 minutes, the circling Air Canada jet spotted the yacht and alerted the Australian Maritime Safety Authority to the boat’s exact location, and a boat was sent to rescue yacht captain Glenn Ey of Queensland, Australia.
When the found the yacht, the passengers on board the plane cheered and high-fived.
The plane landed in Sydney 90 minutes late, but nobody on board was complaining.
They landed 90 minutes late, and not a single complaint was heard.
In an age of social media and immediate feedback, often your actions build your brand. You can do all of the marketing you want, but your actions will always speak louder.
Do the right thing.
It is so brilliantly simple, but so tremendously difficult for some brands to do.
Purchase your own copy of Brand Like A Rock Star in Kindle or paperback and start doing the right things to build a better brand. From the smallest start-ups to the biggest Fortune 500 companies, there is plenty to learn from rock’s legends that can be immediately applied to your business.
