“This is not B-Bop’s. This is different,” my 4-year-old nephew, Nolan, informed me, hoisting a frozen french fry from his divided dinner plate.
B-Bop’s is Des Moines, Iowa’s number-one fast food restaurant, according to their website. They annually win consumer choice awards for the best burger and fries in town. And make no mistake, we may be in little ol’ Iowa, but we have a thriving culinary scene.
Nolan is a B-Bop’s connoisseur, and while he mistakenly calls all french fries and chicken nuggets “B-Bop’s,” he knows the difference between the real deal and a knock-off. He ate the imposter nuggets and fries on his plate, but not with the same zeal as he does when a hot white bag of fast food sits in front of him. (“I love B-Bop’s” songs are often improvised between open-mouthed bites of ketchup-laden chicken.)
Let that be a lesson to all us marketers out there: Even toddlers pick up on authenticity. And even toddlers have brand loyalty. In fact, toddlers might be the biggest brand loyalists out there.
Consider their unwavering blind devotion to their parents. In the middle of crafting one day, Nolan proclaimed (completely unprompted), “My mom is always nice!”
Now, his mom is my older sister, and I know from years of sisterly abuse that his mom is NOT, in fact, always nice. But I digress.
“Oh, that’s great!” I replied. “How about your dad, is he nice?”
“Yes, because he always does stuff for me.”
You see? If you provide great service to your clients, they will remain loyal to you. Am I stretching the analogy? Maybe. Maybe I just wanted an excuse to write about my nephews.
One day, when Nolan was 2 and still learning the English language, he led me into my sister’s room. She was out of town, and I was taking my nephew off my brother-in-law’s hands for a few hours. Nolan beckoned me over to his mom’s bedside table and started messing with some pamphlets. I didn’t think twice about it until I saw the word “pregnant” printed in big block letters on a brochure.
“Is your mom pregnant?” I cried. Nolan looked at me, eyebrows raised. “Ryan!” I called to my brother-in-law.
He wandered into the bedroom and, upon seeing me standing there dumbfounded with the brochure in my hands, yelled, “Hey! Get out of there!”
“Are you guys having another baby?!” I cried.
My brother-in-law always laughs maniacally when he’s uncomfortable. “That’s not yours!” he replied between giggles.
“Hey!” Nolan joined in, grabbing at the telltale brochure. “Not yours! That’s my mommy’s!” There goes that toddler loyalty. Here I thought maybe I had earned some allegiance from my nephew over the years.
Needless to say, yes, they were having another baby, and I didn’t stop smiling for a month. I mean, talk about a brand launch, am I right?
Nephew #2, Julian, joined the chaos on November 13, 2023. And while Nolan was always delighted at my presence and laughed easily at my silliness (curling my lips around my teeth and crying “Where are my teeth?! Have you seen my teeth?!” always got a big laugh), Julian was decidedly…apprehensive. Whenever he looked at me, I got the distinct vibe that he remembered me from a past life and was like, “This lady again? Really??”
So, two lessons here:
Vibes last – even across lifetimes, if you believe in that kind of thing!
You CAN change a person’s impression of your brand over time. I call it “wearing a person down.” After an entire year of working for Julian’s love – honing my act to fit his sense of humor, complimenting his ultra-soft skin, and letting him inspect my teeth at length because he seems to like that kind of thing – I can say with certainty, that kid adores me now. (Or at least, his attitude toward me is along the lines of, “Meh, she’s not so bad, I guess.”) So maybe that first cold email to a prospective client didn’t work, but maybe the fifth one will. Shrug emoji!
Before becoming an aunt, I didn’t think I was very good with kids. They tended to take an antagonistic approach with me, like, “I don’t trust this broad. She clearly has no maternal instincts.” And I certainly didn’t think I had anything in common with little boys.
But lo and behold, Nolan and Julian think my randomly bursting into song is fantastic. (“Itchy Itchy Itchy” set to the tune of ABBA’s “Gimme Gimme Gimme” is a fan-favorite.) They love my dramatic readings of their picture books, and we play Fight Kitties whenever we see each other. It just goes to show, you never know when a new opportunity might come to explore a new audience or niche.
Anyway, all this is to say, thank you, Nolan and Julian, for all the lessons you’ve taught me so far. And for being my best audience ever.