Lingerie on the Loose

One of my favorite things about living here in Nashvegas is an event called the Art Crawl. On the first Saturday of every month – all 12 of them – a bunch of downtown art galleries are open from 6 pm to 9 pm. Most have show openings, and some serve cheap wine and munchies. If the weather’s decent, quite a crowd – like in the 1000’s –  shows up.

And what a crowd it is!

All shapes, all sizes, all ages, all walks of life. In spite of all the art and other interesting sights to ponder, the real show – and isn’t this so often the case? – is the people. An exuberantly eclectic mix.

Eclectic? Mix? Even here in Nashville, the medium-sized Southern city we call home, most of us have become inured to green hair, painful looking body piercings, unfortunate tattoos in unfortunate places, and … um … original fashion concepts. But now and again I see something so arresting, I have to whip out my phone and record it, lest it slip away forever. It happed again last Saturday.

I was hanging out with a friend between galleries on the upper level of the Arcade – a good spot to spot the unusual – when I saw coming toward me an attractive young woman – in her late 20s maybe – with a lush figure absolutely stuffed into a teeny tiny dress. Well, as a rule, I’m not into ogling the ladies these days, but this one simply demanded attention, so, I turned to get the rear view. And this is where it got interesting.

Right there above the thong line – not a panty line folks, a thong line, trust me on this – was the most amazing sartorial train wreck I’ve seen in quite a while.

The dress was cut wide and low in back and running right across the exposed expanse was the back side of a bra! Complete with straps! Admittedly it was a sorta dingy beige-ish bra, as opposed to a black or a white one, and therefore it blended in. To a degree. But still … This dress, out of which she was overflowing in all directions, was designed to be worn without a bra, or maybe with some sort of backless contraption. But there she was, in her sexy, low-back, go-out-and-boogie dress, with a tired-looking, work-a-day brassiere hanging out for all to see.

Egads!

As is so often the case in situations like this, my mind was immediately flooded with questions. Was this part of a fashion concept, and therefore done on purpose? Did she forget – like forget she was wearing a bra, or forget the dress was cut low back there? Did she think it would blend in and no one would see it? She was about to pop out of the front of the dress anyway, so why did she even need a bra? Had no one ever told her that going around in public with your lingerie showing is generally considered tasteless? Was she simply off her meds and beyond caring?

Questions, questions, questions! And alas, I have no answers. I don’t even have a theory on this one. Though I picked my jaw up off the floor and moved on, I remain amazed and mystified.

So, does this fandango contain a marketing message?

You bet it does. In fact we could go in a number of directions here. We could talk about the importance of appropriate packaging. We could talk about oversharing. We could talk about consistency of concept – the front and back sides of this gal didn’t match.

But I’ll go with the most important one – and it’s something we’ve hit on before. Deliver what you promise!

As I said above, this woman’s front side and back side didn’t match. From the front, she was reasonably attractive and dressed to rock your world. Majorly exposed, quite curvy, rather come hither in a heavy-metal sort of way, and oddly sophisticated. From the back with the thong line and her decidedly un-sexy lingerie on the loose, she looked as lumpy and frumpy as a drudge. And possibly out of her mind, to boot.

From the front she promised a certain level of odd-ball sophistication, not to mention a good time. From the back she promised nothing of the kind – unless the prospect of additional unpleasant surprises, and/or dealing with someone who’s off her meds is your idea of a good time.

So, how does this apply in the world of marketing? If you promise something you’d better deliver it. Otherwise it’s better not to make the promise at all. Why honk-off and/or disorient you customer? Would I have been quite this dismayed at the back side if the front hadn’t been so promising?

And BTW, in case this is beginning to sound totally sexist, we could use a male in this scenario just as easily. A really great looking guy could have coffee breath or excessive ear hair, neither of which is noticeable until you’re up close. Or he could have cat hair all over the back of his black sweater. Or toilet paper stuck to his shoe. Or … The list is endless. This involves a marketing principle. And as such, it’s unisex.

I repeat: Deliver what you promise. Fail to do so at your peril.

On to cocktails!

It’s about time! And this time we’ve got a real humdinger.

Not long ago, I was asked by Fifty Forward, a Nashville non-profit, to come up with a signature cocktail for their annual fund-raising dinner. Only too glad to comply, I played around in the lab here at Marketini Central and came up with three recipes for a committee to test – all using Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur – and I present the winning recipe, the Nifty Fifty, herewith.

This is a winning combo based on – what else? – gin and citrus, God’s gift to drinkers everywhere, and spiced up with Domain de Canton, an absolutely lovely ginger-flavored liqueur that’s just now coming into fashion. If you don’t have a bottle, you need to get one right away. It’s refreshing on the rocks with a little soda water and/or lime and it’s terrific in cocktails. I used it in the cocktail for December 30 last year, and you’ll see it in the future. I promise.

Nifty Fifty 

3 parts gin

2 parts Domaine de Canton

1 part lemon juice (Need we say it? You have to squeeze it!)

Easy as 3-2-1! Drink up and enjoy!