Jobs not expected back until 2012: Branding means more now than ever
This week NBC News aired a story of someone whose credit card interest rate had gone from 8% to 29.9% via Citibank. He paid is bill on time and in fact paid more than the minimum balance but Citibank chose to raise his rate anyway. When NBC News contacted Citibank their response was that "he is free to close his account and take his business elsewhere". These reports do a lot to stoke the anger of consumers who are already angry that their money has gone to bail out Wall Street while reports start to surface about huge bonus payouts again.
24 Months and counting (Click to enlarge)
Consumers will
continue to take out their anger on brands and
companies as they try to regain control by saving
more money and leaving their credit cards in their
wallets. Does this mean that companies should cut
marketing? No, if anything it means that companies
need to ramp up marketing and ensure that every
consumer touch point is executed perfectly.
One of the strongest brands in the world, Apple, is a
great example of what an excellent brand promise can
bring to the table. Despite the downturn in the
economy they have managed to increase share, and
sales, of Mac PC's, often at a premium price when
compared to Windows based PC's. The lesson here is
that people will pay for the brand promise of
excellence and Apple is an excellent, highly rated,
brand.
How many times have you gone to a website to respond
to an offer or to research a product only to come
away frustrated because the website didn't function
the way you thought it should? How many times have
you tried to get help for a product only to find
yourself in an endless phone tree of prerecorded
messages? That may have worked when people were
spending but now customers who have a poor brand
experience are saying "sorry, I'll take my business
elsewhere". This is why investments have to made into
the brand but those investments have to be in the
areas that matter most to consumers not in new catchy
ad campaigns (hello Yahoo!) that do little to enhance
the customer experience.
With jobs not expected to return until 2012 brands
have some time to get it right but they had better be
prepared for empowered consumers who now control the
message and can trash brands that don't get it right.
