Like many young students, Helen was learning how to write letters for a class project, and she and her fellow students were given the task of writing to a company. Helen chose to write to one of her favorite companies, Nintendo.  She explained that she was a big fan, and wrote that she had begged her parents to buy a Nintendo DS for her, which they refused to do. Check out this link to see her letter (warning, this is a video game website, so if you’re at work they may block you).

Now, most companies would throw a letter like this in the trash, or disregard it completely. But Nintendo (evil marketers that they are) had other ideas. After calling the school and talking with the principal to verify the letter, they decided to send Helen and her class a DS (and in classic Nintendo fashion, one game). Wow, way to go Nintendo. I’m sure Helen will remember this for the rest of her life, and will probably continue to purchase Nintendo products for years to come. When someone tries to talk smack about her favorite company, she’ll have something positive to say in response. And so for the cost of Nintendo DS (probably around $80 bucks or so) Nintendo has created a lifelong customer and brand advocate.

Let me add one more thing in here. Giving away a product is not the answer. Well, okay, I’m sure it helped alot. But I think that the fact that Nintendo responded to this individual request (and by the way did not seek out any kind of attention for this act) is what’s really important. Today, we have all these high tech solutions and ways to reach potential customers, but in the end sometimes it’s that human interaction that creates the biggest impact. Don’t forget it.

Sometimes it’s the little adjustments that you make that can mean the difference between success and failure. Minor tweaks, things that increase efficiency, small improvements that maximize the effectiveness of your product or whatever (look at pro football where one yard can mean the difference between a win or a loss for that week, or basketball where one team usually wins by one or two points). Small things can mean big money for some companies, but it’s the big ideas that will set you apart from the competition. Seth Godin discusses this as his eleventh trend in his book Meatball Sundae, “The triumph of big ideas.”

In a world where all companies seem to behave the same, a big idea can make you stand out. A big idea demands attention. Look at what Nintendo did with the Wii. I’ve played video games all my life. Anyone that knows me will tell you that I love video games. But what about all those people out there that have never picked up a video game controller? I remember when controllers only had a joystick and a red button, but today controllers are more complicated than ever. How is a first time gamer going to make heads or tails out of it to enjoy a game, much less actually be good at it? Nintendo created the motion controller in the Wii to appeal to that person. Now “casual gamers” (as they have been dubbed) and “hardcore gamers” alike can enjoy the same games. Parents can play with their kids, and everyone has a great time. It’s no wonder that Nintendo is such a successful company. They get it.

What are some of your favorite big ideas? Discuss below… or else.

Notables quote from this section:

• “A big idea can spread so far and so fast that the market leader cannot stop it.”