GrrrrroundFloor Animals Get Giving to support Morris Animal Foundation’s Canine Cancer Campaign

Morris Animal Foundation’s Canine Cancer Campaign tag line says it all, “Best Friends Helping Best Friends.” It was our team’s love for our best friends that quickly united us to support the Canine Cancer Campaign as part of GroundFloor Media’s 10^th Anniversary Get Giving project. For me the decision was also deeply personal; this past June I lost my best friend Duke to lymphoma.

Duke was a labor of love. We rescued him when he was just shy of his second birthday. We were told that we were his fourth home, but that had nothing to do with behavioral issues rather lack of time to care for a high-energy Weimaraner. We welcomed Duke into our home, and he quickly became my shadow. He was never keen on leaving the house and often had to be bribed to go for a walk. Offering a ride in the car was always met with hesitation and usually required us lifting him reluctantly. Duke was a home body. Sounds great except that it was Duke’s home and he was adamant about not letting others in, making it difficult to entertain or host house guests.

In March, something changed in Duke. At first, the vet optimistically thought it was a minor infection, but he wanted to run additional blood work. A few days later that blood work confirmed the worse –Duke had lymphoma. According to Morris Animal Foundation, 1 in 4 dogs will die of cancer. It is also the leading cause of death in dogs over the age of 2 years, and the risk increases with age. On June 20, my best friend Duke became part of that statistic.

Morris Animal Foundation’s Canine Cancer Campaign is funding research to help develop prevention strategies, test new treatments, establish tools for cancer researchers and train new scientists specializing in cancer research. Our team hopes that you will support this campaign by helping raise funds to one day cure this disease that affects so many of our "best friends." For every dollar we raise, through its 10^th Anniversary Get Giving program, GroundFloor will match it up to $2,500.00. Please take a moment to visit our giving page and learn more about Morris Animal Foundation’s Canine Cancer Campaign. Feel free to share the link with friends and family because together we are working to fund a cure.

~ Kristina, team member of GrrrrrroundFloor Animals

The Customer Experience, Branding and Hot Chocolate

Mid-Season snow conditions by Thanksgiving meant one thing for me and a group of friends this past weekend: turkey in Eagle County. Taking a break between runs at the Dusty Boot (try the mac n’ cheese wedges) a couple of us were discussing all of the special events that ski resorts have planned throughout the season when someone said, “They’ll do anything to get people up here.”

Another friend argued that events like Snow Daze, The World’s Best Chocolate Cookie Competition and Ullr Fest aren’t just a reason to get people to the mountain, but more about providing an experience for the people who were already there. And while I think both opinions are correct, it’s a great argument about customer experience and how brands are truly developed.

Customer experience is really what drives any brand – the look and feel of your product and packaging, the experience customers have with employees, promotions and special events – all of these things. You can’t change it by merely updating your logo or changing your tagline. Your brand is what your customers think about you and your product or service. And while companies can create special events or other ideas to enhance the customer experience, many experiences are going to happen whether you calculated them or not.

The European alpine surroundings and “feel” in Vail (to use one example) are definitely part of its brand, but so are the amount of snow in China Bowl and the often-backed-up lift lines at Chairs 3 & 4. Some of it is controllable, some of it isn’t. That is exactly what I was impressed with over the weekend. The things I experienced that ski resorts can control – amenities, the friendliness and helpfulness of the ski lift staff, hot chocolate at the top of the gondola, the cleanliness of the village, even the crazy special events were top-notch.

My point is that customer experiences and brands can’t be fabricated. They are a result of how a company is run and its commitment to the overall brand experience, not what the company wants its customers to believe. If you want to modify or change your brand, you’ve got to know what your customers currently think about your company, and then make the fundamental changes within your organization to give customers the authentic brand experience you want them to have.

Which ski resort has the best brand? I have three or four favorites, and which one I chose all depends on what type of experience I’m looking for that particular day. It’s great to live in Colorado, isn’t it?