Snow & Steady

By Steve Badertscher

While driving, um… make that “sliding” into work today, I was thinking “arrive alive” on more than one occasion. Today’s icy road conditions had me convinced I was actually auditioning for a role in an upcoming episode of Ice Road Truckers instead of making the commute to the office. While scanning through radio channels in an effort to catch a weather report, I heard an interesting statement. I’ll get back to that statement shortly.

But first, let me say driving in snow is something we Ohioans learn to do at an early age. We also learn to shovel sidewalks, scrape ice off of windshields, shovel driveways, etc. Don’t get me wrong, snow also provides us with the opportunity to learn how to do fun things such as building snow men, sled riding, snow skiing, etc. Depending on your outlook, and skill level, driving falls somewhere in the middle between pain and pleasure.

Learning to drive in snow takes patience and practice. There is plenty of practical advice available that is helpful, too. But it takes time to learn and memorize a set of detailed instructions that need to become second nature in quick order if you plan to spend winters driving in the Buckeye state.

For example, I found the following detailed information in an article titled “Driving in Snow and Ice” from The Weather Channel site, www.weather.com

Driving safely on icy roads

1. Decrease your speed and leave yourself plenty of room to stop. You should allow at least three times more space than usual between you and the car in front of you.
2. Brake gently to avoid skidding. If your wheels start to lock up, ease off the brake.
3. Turn on your lights to increase your visibility to other motorists.
4. Keep your lights and windshield clean.
5. Use low gears to keep traction, especially on hills.
6. Don't use cruise control or overdrive on icy roads.
7. Be especially careful on bridges, overpasses and infrequently traveled roads, which will freeze first. Even at temperatures above freezing, if the conditions are wet, you might encounter ice in shady areas or on exposed roadways like bridges.
8. Don't pass snow plows and sanding trucks. The drivers have limited visibility, and you're likely to find the road in front of them worse than the road behind.
9. Don't assume your vehicle can handle all conditions. Even four-wheel and front-wheel drive vehicles can encounter trouble on winter roads.

If your rear wheels skid...

1. Take your foot off the accelerator.
2. Steer in the direction you want the front wheels to go. If your rear wheels are sliding left, steer left. If they're sliding right, steer right.
3. If your rear wheels start sliding the other way as you recover, ease the steering wheel toward that side. You might have to steer left and right a few times to get your vehicle completely under control.
4. If you have standard brakes, pump them gently.
5. If you have anti-lock brakes (ABS), do not pump the brakes. Apply steady pressure to the brakes. You will feel the brakes pulse — this is normal.

If your front wheels skid...

1. Take your foot off the gas and shift to neutral, but don't try to steer immediately.
2. As the wheels skid sideways, they will slow the vehicle and traction will return. As it does, steer in the direction you want to go. Then put the transmission in "drive" or release the clutch, and accelerate gently.

Some very good detailed advice indeed! Every point made is a good one. However, if I’m an inexperienced driver attempting to navigate through snow for the very first time, this check list might seem a bit overwhelming.

This brings me back to the statement I heard on the radio. It summed up the 16 detailed points made above in one memorable concept. It communicated all of that information in one sentence. And here it is:

“Drive like you have a cup of coffee sitting on your dashboard.”

Simple? Yes! More importantly, memorable? Absolutely!

It’s also a great example of the way you should look at your advertising messages. We still see way too many B2B marketers trying to list every detailed bullet point in their advertising at the expense of having their key message or selling proposition being missed or overlooked.

So sit back with a nice steaming hot cup ‘o joe today and think about how you might boil your complex advertising messages down into one simple, memorable concept. And if you need a hand in that, I’ll gladly put down the snow shovel to assist you!

Flickr Photo Credit: Melissa Gray