My wonderful client Mariko has a wonderful habit of sending me wonderful gifts – all penguin-themed.

Over the years she’s sent me a penguin mobile, a penguin Lego puzzle (I still can’t figure out how to put it together) and countless stickers, envelopes and other office items.

But a couple of weeks ago, she outdid even her own wonderful self.  I received a foot tall, blue, penguin sculpture.  

And when I say sculpture, I don’t mean some plastic thing that your Aunt Esther picked up at the Dollar Store.  This is a quality figurine; a work of art.

It even came with directions (see photo):

Funny?  Absolutely.  It takes years of practice to learn how to write like a native speaker and whoever (whomever?) converted this from the original Japanese was clearly at the Google Translate stage of English composition.

But guess what?  I read and understood the directions.  It was far from perfect, but the fact that it stood out as different (and funny) got my attention.

In fact, because it was different and funny, I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that of all the warnings, directions and instructions I’ve ever come across, under any circumstances, this one was the most successful in communicating its message.

How about the things you and your company write?  

Same old ignorable fluff written in the same old way?  “We value our clients.” “We are leading providers of cross platform solutions.” “Your call is important to us.”

Or do you do something different; something worth paying attention to?

Until next time, thanks be to you and please to be having a nice day.