Delivering Happiness

4. Give your evangelists a voice.
This past year was the first time we asked Zappos customers to get
involved in the process. The response was amazing. We received
submissions from all over the world, as well as e-mails from people
who wished they lived in Kentucky or Nevada so they could apply
for a job. But in the meantime, they’d love to be in a book associated
with a company like Zappos.
In the earlier years, we asked vendors and partners to be involved
too. For a company that’s relied heavily on word of mouth, it’s
become a valuable channel of communication. Not only is it
educational to hear from them, it lets customers and partners know
how important they are to Zappos too.
5. A word is a word, and a picture is worth a thousand… but a
brand is worth a million.
How do you convey something as intangible as a brand in something
called the Culture Book?
Short answer? If your culture stays true to its values and/or
mission statement, the words and images speak for themselves.
Why? Because they’re real.
Every voice in the book is a unique perspective, but together,
they’re the gestalt of Zappos. Why does an employee on 
here
 sound
strangely similar to someone else on 
here
? It’s because everyone at
Zappos lives by the 10 Core Values. By sharing a common belief
system, Zappos employees become the unified brand to the world.

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(As an aside, I’m always amused by people who say, “Zappos must
be a cult!” In some ways, it is. But if a cult revolves around making
people happy, I’ll sign up anytime.)
Then comes the pictures part. By sprinkling in images of what
the Zappos family does from morning to night—Marshmallow
Peeps® contests, happy hours, Zolidays, the annual vendor party—
we give readers a true sense of the brand in a non-obtrusive way.
These aren’t ads—these are pictures from our lives.