Crackers or nuts?

As a youngster, I remember ordering pizza's from a local pizza joint that promised to be delivered in 30 minutes or you got to keep the driver's watch. We'd always sit and wait as the time ticked away, even delaying answering the door if the driver was cutting it close. It was a great gimmick even though the pizza was usually pretty average and the driver wore a watch that was worth $1.99 (plus tax).

Marketing Time, a blog post by Seth Godin (on my "must read blogs" list) talks about how adding an element of time to your branding makes the customer feel important:

A contractor that prides himself on finishing every single job on the day it's due, regardless of what it takes, is telling a powerful story, doing marketing that's actually cheaper and more effective than advertising ever could be.

At my company, a reputation for delivering projects to the users on time is more compelling than any advertisement. The software development business is rife with stories of projects that have failed between inception and delivery, usually at the expense of huge amounts of money and personnel.

I'm very proud of the projects that I've participated in that are still being used in production today. As a matter of fact, I was in a retail shop the other day and saw the software that I wrote being used on the cash register. Of course, when I mentioned it to the clerk he proceeded to tell me everything that he'd like to change about it, but that's another story.