Archive for May, 2008
Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? Would a Mac by any other name be as cool?
This was a question I posed in a recent article on SmarterMarkets.com. Is Mac just another brand of PC, albeit with superior brand awareness and advertising? I asked several people this question over the past week and I can tell you, to the average consumer, everything is in the name.
Here’s a quick update for everyone:
I received a telephone call yesterday from one of the higher-ups at Network Solutions offering to address my complaint and fix the charge for me. The charges will be reversed and my hosting package there will be canceled.
While I might be frustrated with the initial level of customer support I received from Network Solutions, I can honestly say their follow up in the end is impressive. This is a case of a company that truly cares about their brand and their reputation among not just existing but also former customers.
When your company has a problem like this, what avenues do you tread to correct it?
An integrated brand touches and defines all aspects of your company. It’s true that advertising has a lot to do with how first-time customers and non-customers view your company, but customer support defines how existing and former customers will view you.
I wanted to take a minute or two and explain a little more about my goals with the Smarter Markets project. While to some it might seem that I just really like blogging and have too much time on my hands, there is a specific outcome I plan to investigate.
Wednesday night saw the official publication of the first 100 posts of Mindshare Marketing in both paperback and ebook format. Feel free to take a look over at Jumping Duck Media’s storefront on Lulu. The ebook costs $1 and the paperback costs $8.15. These are minimal costs and yield only $0.80 profit per purchase; the content is free to begin with, the charge only pays for hosting the content and all the time it took to format the manuscript.
Hopefully this is the first of many volumes of Mindshare Marketing, and hopefully it will eventually carry an ISBN and be available in stores. For now, you can find it here or on Lulu.com.