Thomas, thanks for sharing your views on being a ‘snowflake business’. Can you explain exactly what you mean by that phrase?
“The snowflake generation have social media largely to thank for their ‘melt in the face of criticism’ persona. Through a large portion of their life being played out and recorded online, vulnerable people have played safe with life itself. Yet snowflake businesses too, are guilty of doing just the same, playing it one step safer with each comment, tag or campaign online.”
Why do you think companies shouldn’t ‘play it safe’?
“It’s easy to play safe, remove the irreverent comment or take off sale the crazy product you brought into store. In fact, snowflake bosses across the land have uttered those words ‘make it go away’ many times, despite this not being true to their own beliefs, customers or fans. This is selling out! They’re killing their message, their personality and their business. Feedback is important and should be processed, with a decision taken to ignore or adjust.”
So what’s your advice?
“Be true to you company’s personality and act in accordance with it. If you want to be bold, interesting and relevant to your customers then stand up and to hell with everyone else! ‘Oops, sorry’, and a prompt removal from your range feels safe. It is. Safe is not a reason for action; safe is a cop out. The best and most important response is ‘be true to your brand. If you’re not clear in what it is, you need to find out, and fast! Each step away from your brand is a step closer to the mundane, the bland, the boring and the irrelevant. This applies to your message, your product and your company. Snowflake companies drift towards mundanity by removing risk and their personality, both online and off.”
What’s your take at Boxer Gifts?
“We are designers and manufacturers of fun, humorous gifts. Humour and fun are emotions which cannot be calculated scientifically. They are subjective both to the gift recipient, the gift buyer and the times we currently live in. We constantly face criticism for what we do and why we do it. We never shy away from evaluating it. We ask ourselves: have they a right to be offended? (Were we wrong?) 2. Is it true to our brand? Our slogan is ‘Fun is our Business’, and we try stay true to who we are and what we do. This is us. We can’t, and don’t want to, remove our personality. If our products are not for you then don’t buy them, don’t buy from the shops that sell them if you feel strongly enough, but don’t impose your personality on us. We believe in what we do and have the conviction to carry on, despite the naysayers and the snowflakes telling us otherwise.”
How would you define your strategy?
“We take risks, we push boundaries and we get it wrong! However, we are not boring. We have taken our own less well trodden path, leading our market by being first with quirky new ideas and fresh, interesting concepts. We – and our customers – want to make waves, be irreverent, be interesting and be different, which can scare even ourselves along the way. But ultimately, we will be true to ourselves, our brand and to our customers.”
What advice would you give to ‘snowflakes’?
“Despite being a largely reported section of the population, nobody I’ve met yet has signed up to this tribe known as the ‘snowflakes’, so there must be unwilling members . . . Therefore, believe in what you do and don’t melt in the face of criticism. Own it, it’s yours, but when it’s wrong just ignore it or your customers will ignore the new melted, and more boring, you.”
Email: thomas@boxergifts.com
Top: Boxer Gifts’ Thomas O’Brien says the company stays true to its brand of fun, humorous gifts.
