Branding: The 72 Cutlass

You've heard the expression, "the advertiser buried the axe in the consumer's brain."  Well, I advertised  my mechanical aptitude and abilities to Rosemary one summer day in 1988 and it's still fresh in her memory today. 

It was eight o'clock Saturday morning and I was out in the driveway changing oil in my 1972 Cutlass.  Rosemary said goodbye to the visible part of my body and went to work.  I encountered a problem right away.  I couldn't get the oil filter off and while in the process of trying to do so, shredded every piece of metal off of it.  This meant there was nothing left to put the wrench on.  Two hours later and I had to walk away.  After cooling off, I called my brother and asked him what to do. 

I ran a couple of errands and went back to the Cutlass, confident that my brother's advice would work.  It did.  It was now four o'clock in the afternoon and Rosemary pulled in the drive, back from work.  She walked up to my car and noticed that I was in the identical position as when she left me.  I must have moved a leg, confirming to her that no harm had come to me.  At that point she was overcome with a bout of uncontrollable laughter, so outrageous, that I still hear it today! 

By 1988, we had been married for eleven years.  Rosemary knew the drill.  David tries to fix something.  David calls someone to fix it, plus what he screwed up.  The image of me laying under the car in the identical position as she left me, buried the axe of my mechanical ineptitude forever in her mind.

So the battery dies in Rosemary's van yesterday.  Now, we're not talking about removing the battery from a 1966 Ford Galaxy.  I believe Chevy plopped a battery on the assembly line and built the van around it.  After relaying this information to Rosemary, I had set the stage for a four hour wrestling match.  Half an hour later I come in the house, tell her I'm done and that the van is running fine.  She looks at me and starts laughing.  Take a guess at what incident that she was thinking about.

Believe it or not, I've been successful at a few home chores.  I fixed our washing machine once, I can hang pictures on the wall and replace a faucet washer (sometimes).  When it comes to doing stuff like this however, I will always be identified by the 1988 incident. 

I wonder if your business can prosper from David's branding session?  Provide consistent service and, when the time presents itself, do something outstanding.  If emotion, like, say laughing, is tied into the deal, you can bet you will be remembered.

"Dad, my bike is broke.  Can you fix it?"

"Sure Carla, as soon as your Mom stops laughing."

Comments

[Rosa Say]

Sounds exactly like my husband, except that he and the buddy he calls for help end up having a beer in the driveway and I end up calling a repairman. Now we even have a spare refrigerator in the garage. Nowdays I laugh too.

[EM Sky]

How funny is that? You crack me up, Dave. I love it.

- EM

[Steve Sherlock]

David, in this situation is good to recall that even the greatist prophets had trouble being accepted at home.

[Dick Richards]

This post made me yearn for the days when I actually had a chance of fixing something in a car -- like the time I replaced the carberator (remember them; well, maybe you don't) in a '52 Chevy.

It is good to provide Rosemary with laughter I think.

[Dick Richards]

P.S. Providing laughter of this sort is a sacred male duty. Keep up the good work Dave -- for all of us guys.

[Dave]

Rosa- I had a fridge in our garage in Ohio...a great convenience.

Thanks :-) for stopping by EM

That feeling of "not being accepted" at home Steve is given and received in pure joy! We laugh just thinking about it

Dick - oldest car I owned was a 1966 Caprice. But I do remember that the non professional mechanic could repair a great deal more than today...I mean, most of us can figure out where the window washer fluid goes. We do have so much fun with my lack of mechanical aptitude.

[b2b resource]

It's definitely about branding. You will always remember the bad (or funny) experience before the average or good one.

Thanks for the laugh!

-Bryan

[Dave]

Hi Bryan - those experiences are the difference, aren't they?

[Joy Des Jardins]

This is really funny Dave, and brings back a lot of memories with my husband. He was a Mr. Fix-It for many years, and a pretty good one at that; but somewhere down the line I wound up having to hire someone to "fix" what Mr. Fix-It repaired. I think he just lost interest in a lot of it. By the way, we had a 1968 Cutlass when we first got married. I loved that car. Thanks for the laughs Dave....