Archive for March, 2009
The other day, someone asked me what appeared to be the most unassuming question possible. ”If there was something you could start doing today that would improve the quality of your life, what would it be?”
“If we can’t beat the price on any comparable mattress then the mattress is free!”
I’ve heard this low-price guarantee off and on over the past several years from one distributor in the area. I’ve never really believed it, though, and there are some very important reasons.
Firstly, just think of what the promise means. They aren’t promising the best mattresses, the highest quality, the best value, the best comfort – they’re promising the lowest price. At the same time, they try to avoid affiliating their brand with “cheap.” Seems a bit difficult.
Secondly, it betrays their purpose in the market. Why go to an expert retailer to buy a mattress when you could just pick one up at, say, Bed Bath & Beyond? Why go from one specialty shop to another if you can get everything done at a big box retailer? Specialty shops are meant to provide a sense of added value – ‘we guarantee you’ll take home the best mattress for you’ would be a better tag-line.
Finally, this brand promise is entirely empty. They can never fulfill it! Let’s say I find the mattress of my dreams and it costs $300 at store A. I come back to this store and mention their guarantee, so they give me a discount and sell it for $250. I find another store carrying the same mattress for $250, so they offer it to me for $225.
There is no way they can’t beat the price unless someone is standing on the corner giving mattresses away for free to begin with! Even if someone offered my dream mattress up for $1 they could still beat the price.
A brand promise is all about defining your relationship with the customer. What is it you do for them that only you can do and that you focus all of your energies and resources? Is it an empty promise to charge them the least amount of money as in the above example? Are you setting yourself up for failure by promising something you can’t deliver?
I read a book once that warned about self deprecation, claiming that any form of self doubt would inevitably become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I didn’t understand the warning much at the time, but it makes much more sense now. The more we talk about global climate change, the more prevalent signs of the phenomenon become. The more often news stories cover our “poor economy,” the more desolate the future becomes. It’s incredibly easy to talk our way into a bad situation, and I’m sure you can think of hundreds of other examples if you just put your mind to it.
The one piece of universal knowledge shared among PC users is the frustration associated with the “blue screen of death.” You know, the frightening “I am crashing” message your computer displays as you finish the last line of a term paper. It’s less common among newer machines, but still around for those of us who push our systems to and beyond the breaking point.
Last Friday, we talked a bit about how Twitter can make you a better writer. While there are hundreds of reasons Twitter can be a fantastic tool, there are just as many reasons it can be detrimental. Writing concisely is important – but so is writing to be read. A good writer understands her audience. She knows what words will make the most sense. He knows what kind of a tone to take while discussing particular concepts.