All of us are connected with a brand’s promise as consumers and/or as stewards of what it should mean when we engage with a product or service.
So what happens when there’s a wide gap between what we expect from a brand and what we experience? Sometimes you just have to scratch your head.
Here are a few encounters I had within the last 72 hours which will make you ask: What were they thinking?
Front Desk to Hotel Guest: Welcome, we don’t trust you.
A major hotel chain targeting seasoned business travelers was so concerned that its guests would incur damage to their hotel room that they added a surcharge to the bill, to be removed later upon a happy outcome. By contrast, a competitor the next night greeted guests with a warm chocolate chip cookie and room key with the phrase “Rest Easy.”
Why bother boiling the potatoes?
A growing regional grocery chain that touts how distinctive it is greeted you with a garbage can on wheels close to its tight entry, offered undercooked potatoes in its deli salad and featured an employee on a ladder who dropped boxes to the floor from eight feet above as customers walked by.
Buy an easel.
A luxury retail and residential rental broker promoted availability from inside the high end space with a sign which incredibly sat atop an empty joint compound container. At least they deserve points for extending the life cycle of the plastic container.
Change your oil. Better still, go natural gas or electric.
Finally, if your brand promise has anything to do with green/sustainable solutions for a cleaner environment, think about delivering those products in a vehicle which is as easy as possible on the carbon footprint. Sitting behind a delivery truck in traffic promoting a greener planet doesn’t cut it when black smoke is spewing form a vehicle whose oil change is long overdue. Here’s a site to help: http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/Index.do
