Brands vs. Bargains

Cory from MediaPost wrote:
Did anyone else see the article that was in The New York Times Sunday edition about two weeks ago regarding the topic of brands versus bargains?

When you develop your messaging and write a strategic brief for the next campaign you work on, think about these concepts and attempt to demonstrate rather than tell. Attempt to show the consumer, rather than proclaim your values. If you do this consistently through your messaging, your long term growth will be guaranteed without sacrificing your short term metrics for success.

My reply:
Yes! I think an important point here is that "Actions speak louder than words, but words of those actions travel fast and far."

Before the Internet, if a customer were angry about a company's action, or lack of action, they had very little chance of publicly voicing their opinion. Conversely, a satisfied customer also had very little ability to impact other customers' opinions.

Times have dramatically changed. We now have industry forums and community portals such as craigslist where it is very easy for a customer to instantly voice his or her opinion to a large portion of the target audience.

A company I worked for implemented a 30-day no questions asked unlimited exchange policy. Those were the words. We backed it up internally with 100% action, and minimized policy abuse by contacting customers, which also gave us product feedback and more customer care credibility. Yes, it cost money implementing this policy - but we received a great ROI. We soon found that customers were talking about this policy on industry forums - undoubtedly sending new customers our way.

Companies need to realize and take advantage of this ability for the customer to take instant action - and take action themselves to insure that those words are positive before they get too far.