Owen’s Craft Mixers had a very good idea for building brand recognition. They printed coaster with their name on one side and a conversation starter on the other. The intent was to give one to a customer but the execution failed. At the wine bar I regularly visit they received so many of the coasters that they stacked them on the bar and it turned out to be too much of a good thing. The customers weren’t interested in starting 30 different conversations.

This photo illustrates the problem. The lesson I took from this, along with several hundred coasters, was that a good marketing idea is not enough it need to be well executed to work and that starts with training the staff.

I could be wrong.