It has taken 8 solid months but we have locked down 2 of our private label collections: Marc Wayne Intimates, Milan Collection and the Avondale Collection. We are so excited! But...are we ready? Design extends beyond the satin, lycra, lace and bra straps. Design (in our field especially) must be the romantic courtship that touches ever single point of contact with the customer. I'll liken having great designs ready with having an engagement ring in our pocket. Sure...we have the ring...but the moment must be right...it must be planned.
So, today I'll tell the team here at Marc Wayne Intimates that we are NOT ready. We have the engagement ring but we have to create an experience worthy of our customer. When I proposed to my wife it was...intricate. I wanted to envelope the fact that I was proposing in an experience that would give her a story worth telling for the rest of her life. An emotional, unexpected...experience.
I had finally paid off the ring I found for her 8 months prior. It was hidden where she'd never find it though I felt like it was marqueed with neon lights that said "HE'S GONNA DO IT...THE RING IS HERE...LOOK HERE", I was ready but how would I do it? I even asked a radio DJ friend of mine to query his listeners for romantic ideas but that didn't turn out very well. He finally just said, "Marc, do what's in your heart to do."
We already had a BBQ with close friends planned, including Becky's best friend who was only in town for the weekend. I decided this would be perfect. The night before I awkwardly started a conversation with Becky. "You know...if you think about it you're kind of like my Cinderella." "What?", she said sleepily.
"Well, you know...you had your own version of a wicked step-mother and everything. Then we met and you let me sweep you off your feet. You're my very own Cinderella."
With her eyes half closed she seemed confused by this random moment but too tired to do anything more than humor me with, "oh...I guess you're right...I can see that." Then we went to sleep.
The next morning I jumped out of bed and convinced Becky to wait while I prepared breakfast in bed. When I came back up to bed, instead of having breakfast with me I had a poem in-hand. I knelt by the side of the bed, handed her the poem and asked her to read it aloud. It said, "You're my Cinderella, and I'm your Prince Charming. I don't have your glass shoe but I do have something else meant to fit only you." When she looked up from the page I had the ring box open. Her face lit up, she immediately hugged me and I hugged her back as I realized I hadn't taken a single breath of air for several moments.
I exhaled. This was only the start. Her day was full of surprises. I fixed breakfast and mimosas. After breakfast, her best friend and I covered her eyes, walked her to the front down and there...in front of our house at 9am was a white horse and carriage. A beautiful Clydesdale horse named King Arthur. She was like a little girl at a pony ride. She loves horses and took more pictures with King Arthur than I think she did with me.
We rode around our community which happens to be on a golf course. Golfers were waving and shouting congratulations. Young children were running out of their homes to see the "horsie" and we sat embraced with our mimosas and her new engagement ring in-tow.
But it didn't stop there.
Our friends came over as expected and our simple weekend party turned into a very energetic engagement party. Our friends were genuinely excited for us and we all spent the day as friends do. Laughing, eating and laughing some more.
Night fall came and we decided to continue our celebration at one of our favorite night clubs. Becky and her girlfriend were truly dressed to impress. But there was one more surprise...with a bit of symmetry. Once again, she stepped out of our house and there in front of house was a beautiful white stretch-limo. Her carriage for the evening. It was almost more than she could take. She clapped her hands over her face, kicked up one leg behind her and jumped on me screaming "BABY I love it, how did you do all of this??"
We jumped in the limo. Becky and her friend turned up the music all the way to the club and we had a great time. We were greeted with a table in VIP and a complimentary bottle of champagne (which we didn't even finish because EVERYTHING was complimentary that night as people congratulated us on our engagement).
It was...perfect.
I wasn't trying to do anything other than give her the experience I felt she deserved. I could never have anticipated all of the joy that would come from things completely outside of my control. The children, the golfers, the love from our friends and even later from strangers at the nightclub. I even wrote an email to my DJ friend letting him know how things transpired and he, as a surprise for me, read it on air to 3.4 million listeners; which for Becky was the cherry on top.
How can we, as a company deliver the same *quality of experience* to our customers around these new designs? How can we give them a story worth telling? How can we "court" them? It will obviously require more than just a good bra design. I don't have the answers today but we, as a team, will work this week on coming up with a plan to do just that.
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