Just Lucky?

On the subject of brands, and especially the change (or abandonment) of a brand identity and the adoption of a new persona.

I’m struck by the difference in approaches between two recent prominent examples. In California, Albertsons bought out Lucky stores and merged them all under their own name. Recently however, they have changed back to Lucky. They did that, almost overnight it seemed and immediately started talking about Lucky brand values. Albertsons dies overnight.
On their website there is a single mention “There are 72 Albertsons stores targeted for conversion to the Lucky banner; they are located throughout Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma counties.”

Compare and contrast.

AT&T bought Cingular (a brand I happened to feel had great equity and had succeeded in separating itself from the pack of wireless carriers. They were (are!) far from perfect, but much better than the rest in terms of brand equity, promise and customer experience.

Once AT&T (a much more stodgy brand, with much negative equity, in my mind) bought Cingular, they proceeded to spend the next year of more telling me (and everyone else) that I was now an AT&T customer (formerly Cingular) customer. Did they think I didn’t know? I’m actually not sure what they were thinking of. It seems to me the worst example of how to change a brand, that is, keep telling people what it used to be! I had a much more positive view of Cingular than I do of AT&T and the constant reinforcement is like rubbing my nose in it.

Worse, on AT&T’s web (as the first entry under About US) is this:

“Following AT&T’s merger with BellSouth in December 2006, Cingular Wireless is now solely owned by AT&T. Now that branding from Cingular to AT&T is complete, the new AT&T represents the largest wireless company in the United States, with more than 65 million subscribers who use the nation’s largest digital voice and data network. Cingular customers can rest assured that they will continue to receive the quality of products and services to which they’ve grown accustomed—exclusive cell phones and mobile devices, cutting-edge technology, and a large selection of rate plans.”

So, TWO years after the merger is made, they are still promoting the name. Read the second sentence “Cingular customers…….”

Somebody, somewhere is being paid big bucks to perpetuate this branding mess. Talk about confusing. It is nothing short of abysmal. AT&T (formerly CINGULAR) senior managers should be fired for allowing it happen. They should buy dinner for the brand folks advising and implementing the Lucky brand values and listen to how it should be done They get it, and they know how to execute.

If you care about your brand, make sure that the brand values are clear, clearly articulated again and again (and that you live up to them!!!) and don’t talk about what you used to be, to do, or espouse.

And if your consultant recommends anything less, fire them and come and talk to me.

Advertising, Brand, Marketing, Product, User Experience

Exceptional Customer Focus

I tried out Filemaker’s new personal database, Bento, and am not only delighted with the $49 product, but also the service and support.

All this in spite of some really, really horrible messups that would usually be reported here in much stronger terms.

The story:

I downloaded the preview version and was impressed enough to start on a household inventory (actually, I was sold the moment I could manage all my x years history in iCal – deleting only up to the start of 2006 and having it work perfectly – all from within Bento itself). The product is largely self evident (that is, you don’t need a user manual) and the forums and feedback was excellent to product requests, enhancement suggestions and cries for help. TSGal deserves a huge pat on the back for her work there (and a bonus!).

There were some howlers – the ‘Buy Now’ link resolved to a ‘page not found’ error. A killer for the marketing guy in me, even though this was beta software. There are still some of those (read on) in the released product.

I made a couple of suggestions and had questions (from TSGal) to clarify and feedback that my requests had been passed to the development team. Wow, a response! Score 1.

The initial release is announced and I sign up. Filemaker incurred my wrath for stupid (that is information that MAY be valuable to them, but that i should not be OBLIGED to disclose in order to buy) mandatory questions on the order form. For example, this is a personal purchase but the form would not let me proceed without entering a company (as an aside, MacWorld got a repeat of last years silly inputs to its sign up form again – this time the check in crew had a sense of humor and laughed at my company – MYOB). So I wrote ‘This is not a mandatory field’ in the company slot, and sure enough I was allowed to spend money.

I think there computer has a wry sense of humor though. My purchase completed, I scanned my email for the unlock key. Sure enough, it arrives. I enter my name, as requested, and my software key – carefully cut and pasted to ensure accuracy. Nothing. The unlock button stays stubbornly grey. I continue to use Bento in ‘Try’ mode.

I read the forums, sure enough I’m not the only one with problems. I carefully follow all the suggestions – the cause seems to be that those of us who used the preview version, then installed the trial to unlock were struggling. But that IS what we have to do. So I download the trial again, make sure I delete the old installation and install again (at least on a Mac this stuff is trivial and simple). Same result.

I read the forums, make an entry saying that I’ve done all that is suggested, and still had the problem. More suggestions, try them, comment on the forum. TSGal is there, with good suggestions. None of which worked for me. ‘Send me a private message with a number, dates and times our support can contact you’ says TSGal. Are they kidding? They’ll call me? I respond, and sure enough a great tech support person called me.

Turns out that the unlock mechanism didn’t want my name (I tried all the suggestions: use lower case throughout, use two spaces between first and last name, etc., etc.) at all. For some reason – that is still not clear – the registration mechanism wants the Company details, not my name. This is a bit of a surprise, as it’s supposed to be an optional field. So my software is now registered to ‘This is not a mandatory field’. Who says computers don’t have a sense of humor.

I’m a delighted customer. Really.

The lesson here is that our expectation is not for perfection (especially in beta software), but how a company reacts to correct a problem. Filemaker’s people were exemplary. They replied to posts on the forum, they took the problem and owned it, they called me (I still can’t believe that) and they laughed and treated me as a human whilst solving the problem. The support lady who called me said she would report the problems to the dev team. I believe her.

What an organization – represented by extraordinary people.

Apple, Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Mac, Marketing, Product, Service, User Experience, WOM

Respect!

I’ve been an admirer and customer of Nordstrom for many years and have always loved the service.

I’ve bought Faconnable clothes there and at the Faconnable flagship store in New York. I’d always suspected a strong connection between the two, as the receipts form the NY store (which is exclusively Faconnable) carried the Nordstrom name.

Nordstrom take their data about me and my privacy seriously it seems. Today I got an envelope containing a card and a prepaid (with a real stamp on it), addressed envelope.

The card explained that Nordstrom is selling it’s stake in Faconnable and that they want explicit permission (or not) for Faconnable to be able to send material to me. Only with this explicit permission will they transfer my details to Faconnable.

Why? Because ‘we respect the privacy of your personal information’

There are a few companies that could learn from Nordstrom. They are living the values that they espouse – even when there is little chance of it ever becoming public that such a transfer of data happened.

Well done Nordstrom!

Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Marketing, Service, User Experience, WOM

With good grace….

Happy New Year (singular, I am after all, a Brit. and we celebrate the singular not the plural!)

Subway has some great commercials around, and as part of my sensible eating regime (It IS a New Year) I have been walking from my office to the local Subway and back and buying the ‘Sub of the Day’. This is clearly a teaser, $2.99, to which they hope I add – chips, a drink, cookies, etc. to make the total sale significantly higher than the $2.99 starting point.

I understand the logic, there is an average value sale – that is higher than the teaser price – that the store needs to achieve in order to be viable. I emphasize that it’s an average value sale.

I make the point forcibly because there will always be some, for financial reasons perhaps, or for health reasons who do NOT add on items that would increase the sale closer to, or beyond, that magical average figure. I’m one. I decided that the amount of food in the small sandwich of the day was sufficient, I’m avoiding salt – so no chips – and I prefer coffee or tea. Once in a while – guilt perhaps – I’ll have a cookie, but they are not that great.

But here’s the rub. I don’t think I’m imagining the looks and surliness that results, I assume, from being a ‘minimum buyer’. So the risk is that I become a zero buyer; that is, I’ll seek out an alternative where I don’t feel the discomfort.

And the lesson? If you are going to offer a loss leader of any kind, by all means upsell if you can. But if you can’t, offer the item with a smile, with good grace and entice them back for more. I might just order Subway for my meetings rather than pizza. But only if I’m comfortable.

Brand, Customer Service, Marketing, Service, User Experience