Our refrigerator broke this week which is not an insignificant event in a household with 6 – 7 people. (That is not a juvenile number joke. We have one at college nearby but not in the house. Believe me I hear it enough I wouldn’t do that to you!) Unfortunately, this is the third time this particular refrigerator has broken.

Unfortunately, this is the third time this particular refrigerator has broken. We’ve had trouble with this brand before and plan to promptly replace it during our upcoming kitchen remodel. The timing, of course, was not ideal. I’ve been through enough broken refrigerators to know that timing is rarely in your favor when they break down.

Luckily, the repair could be completed within 48 hours and at a cost that, while painful, was worth it.

This morning, when I opened the fridge door to make breakfast, I felt a sense of gratitude. I was genuinely thrilled that the food was right there — not in a cooler on the other side of the kitchen or in the basement backup — and that it was cold, available, and ready to use.

We do this all the time, open the fridge and get our daily food for the next meal without thinking about the wonders of refrigeration. It’s just a common household appliance that we aptly take for granted because it’s always there. Until it’s not. Then, we can become frustrated. Why isn’t it working? Did it have to break now? Does it really have to cost that much? How will I survive without food or refrigeration? 

Actually, we totally can survive without food for quite a while. It’s just uncomfortable and unpleasant. As Catholics, we kick off the Lenten season today on Ash Wednesday, many of us giving up food or enduring some amount of fasting to do just that – deprive ourselves of the things (foods) we so readily take for granted every day.

We do this so we change and grow and ultimately live in gratitude. It’s great to be grateful, but it’s hard to will yourself there. Deprivation (chosen or forced) gets you to gratitude very quickly. I opened the fridge and I was genuinely grateful as anyone would be. It’s a beautiful thing that we in the Western world take for granted every day. I know I do.

While 99% of the Western population has refrigeration, did you know that approximately 1.1 billion to 1.2 billion people globally live without access to refrigeration? That’s a lot of people who could have a significantly different quality of life that warrants a minute to pause and at the very least, be grateful that we have it. It’s a wonder if you think about how commonplace a brilliant, useful tool refrigeration is.

Last night,  I was reminded how much I’m grateful for things that still work.

I played basketball with my daughters. I went 1 v. 1 against my 15-year-old. To say she smoked me is an understatement. That said, I’m incredibly grateful that my left-hook still works. It’s an oldie but a goodie, and I’ll continue to use it whenever possible because it’s reliable and has a high probability of success, even against my significantly more athletic teen.

I’m grateful for my working fridge. I’m grateful for my left-hook.

In both cases, I didn’t think much about them until they were tested. But once they were, the appreciation was immediate. Marketing works the same way.

Marketing can be hard which feels annoying because it doesn’t look hard. Write some words. Draw some pictures. Make everyone love your product. What’s so hard about that?

What’s so hard is that you have to put in a lot of work and it still comes down to timing. Do your customers know you and think of you when they have the problem that you solve? 

It can be hard, but a way to make it easier is to think about creating gratitude in the eyes of your customers.

How can you create gratitude in the eyes of your customers? “Experts” often say “give away a lot of free stuff”, but that is not a strategy. Plus who has time to do that? It’s better to think about omnichannel marketing as creating something our prospective clients are grateful for and that will cultivate a level of gratitude that makes them think about you when they have the problem you solve.

Ask: What can I give my potential customers that would make them incredibly grateful?

The best and most effective way to do omnichannel marketing is to have a great giveaway like a lead magnet, freebie or literal giveaway and then share it in many different ways.
 

And then ask a simple but powerful question: Where else can I share this?

That question, asked repeatedly, forces clarity and consistency. The goal isn’t just distribution, it’s to create enough value-driven gratitude that when your audience encounters the pain your product solves, they think of you first.

Gratitude, built intentionally, becomes recall. And recall is what wins when timing matters. May gratitude in your marketing work like a reliable left hook!