Are You Referral Ready?

Two commercials ran back-to-back last weekend.

The first one was for Bank of America, starring several attractive, clean-cut employees who talked about how great Bank of America was because they offered free online bill pay (who doesn’t?), convenient locations, cutting edge services (whatever those are), blah blah blah. The whole time I was making smart comments because it was just on the edge of BS and believability, and I can smell it from a mile away.

The second one was for the laundry detergent Tide. The commercial showed people involved in their Loads of Hope program, which has provided almost 30,000 loads of cleaned laundry for families affected by disasters.

The narration in the commercial matched these words from the Tide website: “In times of disaster people turn to the most basic of human needs—and one of those is clean clothes. The Tide Loads of Hope program provides relief by means of a mobile laundromat. One truck and a fleet of vans house over 32 energy-efficient washers and dryers that are capable of cleaning over 300 loads of laundry every day. We wash, dry and fold the clothes for these families for free. Because, as we’ve learned, sometimes even the littlest things can make a big, big difference.”

Then they cut to testimonials from real disaster victims expressing their appreciation for what most of the rest of us take for granted.

Bank of America might be a referral worthy company, but their advertising strategy suggests that they are not referral ready. If they were, they would understand several powerful things that Tide did to reach their audience:

1) Tide let other people do the talking. Real people. Real stories. Could just have easily been me or you or someone you know. No employees or paid actors. Just plain folk.

2) Tide touched people emotionally. Everyone is fewer than three degrees of separation from someone affected by natural disasters like New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. CNN makes disaster real for everyone.

3) Tide connected with a cause. Helping clean the clothes of those impacted by disaster is a great cause, and a perfect one for a company that makes its living cleaning clothes.

4) Tide did not promote their product. They just talked about their program. No cheesy assertions about being the greatest product under the sun. Just a “get-to-work” approach that shines under adverse conditions.

5) Tide did not make me skeptical. Because they didn’t try to sell me anything, or try to make another product look bad, or try to make me believe things that no one can really prove anyway.

If it compelled me enough to write about it here, you can bet it compelled others to go to the website, perhaps even inspiring others to join the Loads of Hope movement in other parts of the country.

Bank of America is talking at us. Their web site echoes this trait with one testimonial from the CEO of the company, but not a word in sight from their millions of customers.

Tide is talking with us. Which approach makes a company or product or service  more referrable?

When it comes to being referral ready, you can take Tide to the bank.