About a year ago, a waitress introduced me to what's become my favorite dessert. It took her several hard selling minutes to try the "Caramel Balsamic Gelato". Once I had the first taste, I was hooked.

Like me, you are probably wondering, "balsamic vinegar and ice cream?" It shouldn't have surprised me. I've been eating fruit drizzled with well aged balsamic for a number of years. Even so, the raw thought of adding vinegar to something sweet always makes me nervous.

As I paid the check that night, I asked for the name of the gelato maker so that I could try to get some for home consumption. Like I do, I immediately forgot but remembered "caramel balsamic gelato" well enough to look it up on line". I spent the next several months looking for GelatoMassimo. It's carried by a number of stores locally but none of them seemed to have the Caramel Balsamic. They had lots of other flavors.

Finally, in frustration, I sent the company an email last month. I explained my love of the product and my frustration finding it. I assumed, as is often the case, that the email would go unanswered or, at best, come back with an unsatisfactory response. But, I'd tried everything else.

The president of the company, Massimo Corporale, responded, almost immediately:

Good morning John,

thank you for choosing our gelato  Caramel Balsamic Vinegar . This flavor is made on  special order only!!! Please contact me at  888-888-8888 so, when I am in San Rafael I can give you some samples. You can find our gelato and sorbetto at Whole food market in San Rafael or Other stores in Marine County. Look my web :  www.gelatomassimo.com for more details.

Thank you again for loving our Gelato Massimo products.

What a way to make me an even bigger fan.

When the talk turns to building intimate relations based on attraction rather than promotion, this is a good model of how to do it. A good product and a willingness to build your brand are the required ante.