While every little thing has the potential to make a difference for a brand, some things don’t. It is the brand manager’s job to decide which is which.

My anti-virus often has pop-ups. Sometimes, it tells me that my virus definition is updated. Sometimes, it tells me that there is a problem! The other day, it told me something totally unexpected.

It told me that the official Talk Like A Pirate day was just around the corner, and it gave me the option to switch to Pirate English.

Wha….?

It was interesting enough for me to post on my Facebook. Lo and behold, one of my good friend clued me into why my anti-virus told me about Pirate English. (First, a little background, I’m referring to the Avast! Anti-Virus program.) The word “avast” is actually a pirate term!

Avast: A term commonly used by pirates and pirate wannabes. Means cease and desist.
Arr, avast lest ye want yer captain te chop off ye balls!
UrbanDictionary.com

Now, it all makes sense! Maybe…

The Pirate English pop-up certainly reinforce the name. However, the pirate heritage was never something that they invoked in their marketing. (If they did at one point, they don’t anymore. Today, their branding is very clean, modern, and tech-savvy.) So, this reference to Pirates made little sense to people like me, who knew nothing about Pirate English.

However, let’s think about this differently. I, a girl in marketing, is probably not their target market. My Facebook friend who knew all about Pirate English, a geek in technology, is probably exactly who Avast is targeting. In fact, if it weren’t for him and people like him, I would have never installed Avast on my computer.

All in all, this was a cute touch in the program. It generated enough interest for someone like me to post on Facebook, which may ultimately raise awareness of the product. So, in the end, it all comes down to costs. Brand Managers allow inside jokes in promotional details all the time. It helps reinforce the base and keep the core consumers interested and amused. As long as it didn’t cost much, it’s a nice touch to reference the pirates, even if the pirates aren’t part of their everyday branding effort.

P.S. For those of you didn’t know, today is the official Talk Like A Pirate day. If I was more talented, it would have been appropriate to have this post written in Pirate English Alas, I’m not that talented. Thanks to an online translator, I got a decent headline.

Photo credit: Stéfan Le Dû

Related articles online

• “Sunday, September 19 is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.” and related posts (weeklyworldnews.com)
• Talk Like a Pirate Day 2010 (whiteboardblog.co.uk)

Successful branding takes a lot of work. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Fortune 500 powerhouse, or if you’re a Main Street Store, or if you’re just you. Overnight success doesn’t happen. If you want success in the future, plant that seed today. In fact, that success should be based on one thing: performance. Take social media for example. It’s the latest hype. However, social media wouldn’t help you much if your store doesn’t carry what your shopper is looking for. Today’s breakthroughs are still built on yesterday’s fundamentals. Once you’ve mastered the fundamentals, all those extra things that you do would make it that much better. Social media could be a great thing.

However, everything good can still be lost in just a moment. Think Toyota. The key lesson here is to not avoid the problems. Don’t think they will go away. They never do. Face them head on, and face them fast. Brands could be defined by a single disaster, or the response thereof. Johnson & Johnson taught us that lesson with the Tylenol incident.

At the end of the day, everything you do comes down to the closing. Could you close that sale? Could you close that job interview? Sometimes, you’re just bested by your competitors. But, with enough hard work, and perhaps a little luck, you could win.

Photo Credit: Megan Cole

Related articles online

• Toyota’s Tylenol moment (money.cnn.com)