Friday, May 30, 2008

Brand Inequity

Occasionally my mommy brain goes on hold to observe and comment on more marketing-minded concepts. I have been struck this week by 2 very odd marketing things that one might say are impacting the brand of these services.

For instance, I called late this afternoon to my local pizzeria to orderia a pizza for delivery. Yes, it's almost 5pm, my toddler is still napping, and I dare not venture out in rush hour traffic on a Friday afternoon just for a pizza when he does decide to wake. So I'm on hold waiting to order my Complete Combo with the never-ending $2 coupon, and the marketing terror strikes: I'm on hold to Tejano music! I'm on hold listening to a song being sung in Spanish as I wait to order what one would like to think is an Italian type of food (Do Italians consider pizza an Italian food?) Anyhow, that's just plain wrong.

And yesterday I got a pre-recorded car from Ford calling us to thank us for having our vehicle serviced recently. A pre-recorded thank you; how very thoughtful! Oh, and by the way, a survey is coming your way soon, so please send us lots of kudos if you liked your service experience. I love how these local auto places prime you for receiving something from "Headquarters." I'm all about customer satisfaction, but do you have to prepare me in advance that I will be receiving a survey? Afterall, the service was to repair an item recalled on our vehicle, and you haven't had the replacement parts in stock for almost 6 months. Hmmmm.

And guess what? There are now people in this world with jobs at corporations with the sole purpose of patroling the internet and reading items like mine to try to deflect any negative press and to resolve issues before they get blown out of proportion. Don't worry Ford, I think I have maybe a total of 3 readers on my blog. But I digress. So how does Johnny explain what Daddy does for a living, "My daddy patrols the internet for unhappy people and tries to make them happy." or something like that.

And I'm still on hold waiting to order that yummy Mexican Pizza.

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