Calle's Carnival of Consumer Marketing - September 22, 2006

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Steve Faber presents Internet Ad Revenue Growth Slower – Is That Indicative of Something Bigger? posted at Debt Free.

Trackback URL: http://opportunitiesaplenty.com/blog-mt16/mt-tb.fcgi/78

Steve makes two conclusions here that I couldn't agree with more.

1) What Ford desperately needs is brand loyal, long term customers. I would like to say that that is acquired by making products desired by more people. Obviously, the best practices employed to determine what people want are not working well enough to raise the bar and sell more cars.

2) Ford needs to make sure they [young people] become Ford customers for life. How do you do that? I walked into the Genius Bar at an Apple Store the other day. My 80 gig iPod wasn't working. I was the last appointment of the day. It was 9 PM down at South Coast Plaza. I was tired. Apple's resident Genius Jason was tired. He took one look at my $400 iPod and said, "You know what? I'm just going to give you a new iPod because you've already been here once today." GOLDEN! I am now an Apple Computer devotee for life! I had always purchased PCs before. But you better believe my next and every subsequent computer will be an Apple.

Now that Jason knew he had done the right thing he continued to explain the rationale behind his move. "We take more time to build and test an Apple. They cost more because we build them to work as well on day one as they will work on the last day. They cost more, so we figure the people buying them will be responsible and take care of them. So we figure that when something goes wrong, it's our fault. Here's your new iPod."

Man. What an experience.

Reminds me of another story of the man who bought a turbo diesel Mercedes. Twenty years later, the car would not run. Turbo charger problem - so he took the car to the dealer. The dealer put a brand new $3,500 turbo charger on the twenty year old Mercedes. The following month the owner came back to the dealer and purchased a brand new Mercedes. Don't you think that dealer made his money back from his "small" gesture of goodwill? THAT'S HOW YOU BUILD BRANDS. Found on page one of BUILDING BRANDS FOR DUMMIES.