My Passion for Marketing Started with a Chinese Food Menu

Heading off to college was a significant breath of freedom on multiple levels. I controlled my schedule, decided what an acceptable amount of TV time was, and chose what I wanted to eat and when. I loved the autonomy and responsibility that came with this new phase of my life.

Considering this was in the late '90s, cell phones, and the internet barely existed, so there was no DoorDash, Grubhub, or even a Yelp page to influence our (often) late-night food ordering habits. We relied on old fashion paper menus that were slid under our doors the first week of school.

One of the menus that found its way to Thurston Hall on The George Washington University campus was for a local Chinese food restaurant. To this day, I can't actually remember the name of the restaurant, but what will always stick with me was the headline at the top of the menu: WE DELIVERY!

Whether it was a typo or intentional, we all knew about "We Delivery" Chinese food. Any time hunger hit, someone would suggest "should we order from We Delivery?" It was hands-down the most talked about food option on campus and even 20+ years later, my college friends and I still remember that menu vividly.

Of course, it didn't click at the time, but as my college career continued and I began taking marketing classes, I would often think about that Chinese restaurant and how it became (intentionally or not) the most well-known and memorable food choice (the food was good too). All of that inspired me to think about how other brands can also be memorable, being the solution that is spoken about in almost every conversation by a group of brand advocates.

So while I won't advocate for intentional typos, I always ask my clients: how can we make your company stand out from the competition? How can we create a memorable experience for your customers? How do we stay top of mind? By helping my clients answer these questions, we have created our roadmap for building a brand with true staying power.

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