Business lessons from the donut and coffee guy (kottke.org)

This little post really struck me.

In this example, Jason Kottke observed a coffee vendor in Manhattan that lets his customers make their own correct change so he can move on to the next customer. In doing so, he can serve twice as much coffee and he develops a sense of shared trust within his cutomers.

Many companies take shortcuts in getting their customers to trust them, paying lip service to Trustâ„¢ in press releases and marketing brochures. Which works, temporarily and superficially, but when you get down to it, you can't market trust...it needs to be earned. People trust you when you trust them.

Oh, so true.

Via: Up2Speed

UPDATED: A recent post at What Do I Know offers some similar points regarding the way that Nissan is advertising in Atlanta. Their strategy is to deface their own ads with graffitti pointing people to electricmoyo.com - which is a site funded by Nissan.

Like the post points out, I think this is more proof that corporations are learning that traditional advertising doesn't work and they have to find new ways to build trust and street cred.

Thanks to Anthony for the pointer.