Confab Content Challenge: This Sign Needs Your Help
We’ll admit it: The content strategy bug has bit us, what with all the action happening in Minneapolis this week at the Confab content strategy conference. So you’ll forgive us for straying off our CMS themes for a bit. This week, we’re all content strategists.
Truth be told, all the talks, tweets, slideshares and side conversations about content strategy at #Confab are letting some fresh air into the content management attic. It’s helping us to think beyond the CMS – heck, beyond the website – and observe how companies and brands are communicating with their customers (or potential customers). And also the many ways they may be missing the mark.
So Confabbers (and anyone else), a challenge. A chance to flex your content muscles in front of your peers, and that pioneer of the quick-oil-change, Jiffy Lube. I snapped this sign on 5/7/11 near my home in Massachusetts and was struck by its… plea. I get the “For Fast, Friendly Service,” but…. “Give us a chance”..?
Plaintive? Humble? Begging? We’ll chalk it up to a sincere effort by the staff at this particular garage, but what’s missing is a healthy dose of self-confidence and persuasion.
So the challenge: In the comments section below, give it your best shot to rewrite the content on the sign. Be original. Be bold. Keep it clean. Riff off each other’s work. Give us your best inspiration. Persuade us. (You can check out their content at www.jiffylube.com.) Our Official Judging Panel (@JeffCram and @daponovich) will review submissions and name winners later this week. The prize: the adulation of your peers. And we’ll forward the best entries and the background story to the fine folks at Jiffy Lube HQ. We’ll tell ‘em Confab sends its regards.
P.S. If you’re at Confab, catch Jeff’s CMS Mythbuster performance at 11:30 on Day 2 (Tues.) of Confab: Learning to Love Your CMS.
Comments
19 responses… read them below or add one.
Fast, Friendly Service
Imagine that
You’re in. You’re out.
You’re car will thank you.
How about just, “For fast, friendly service, get it in a Jiffy!”
Great ideas from the Confab / content strategist crowd. Keep em coming.
Fast, friendly, reliable service. Your car and wallet will thank you.
Thanks Laura – great submission. Keep the ideas flowing, folks. Go ahead and start with a clean slate (er, sign) and show us what you’ve got.
Thinking of space:
30 minutes to change
or 30,000 miles to break down
Jiffy Lube
Try us Today
Or the kitten gets it.
Ok, maybe not
Have always wondered how well this approach actually works:
For a Rude Ripoff, Keep Driving.
The thing is, I don’t want them to be confident; I want them to think better of exploiting me. I think “Give us a chance” attempts to address the problem of me not trusting them. If they assert that they can be trusted or that I am no sucker, even indirectly, I may end up even more skeptical (“You can trust me” = no I can’t). Maybe they are better off avoiding the issue, but I would like to hear something more persuasive than openly identifying my situation and passing up the opportunity to be slimy about it.
However, this is still fun:
We’re sorry for all the waits and scams.
We can’t legally shut our competition down.
Looking at their website/brand, something like this:
Quick and Easy
No Appointment Needed
We Advise, You Decide
OOS & AHS!
OOS = over-priced oil service
AHS = always high-priced service
Faster than your hubby
Can come up with another excuse
Related: there’s a convenience store in Somerville called the Y-Not Variety. Ignoring the alt-spelling, a really enthusiastic marketing team must have been assigned to that one.
“Well, let’s see…we need a name… hrm… the Satisfactory Cafe… Good Enough Convenience… Somewhat Acceptable Market… Got Nowhere Else To Be Store”… (etc.)
Friction slowly wears
Fast friendly service is here
Trust in Jiffy Lube
Lube it and Love it!
Cheap & Easy
Tires Checked
Interior Vaccumed