As the recession of the early 90s bit, a large retailer was getting twitchy.
Having included a price promise in their advertising a competitor started doing the same.
The client feared customers might start to migrate so a decision was taken to maintain the price promise, keep things as they were and add another device, this time talking about customer service.
And for a couple of weeks the problem went away... until the competitor predictably followed suit.
The twitch returned.
“We’re telling people we’ve got the lowest prices guaranteed and the best customer service but how do we strengthen our offering?”
Adding a line of copy talking about offering the best range of products was considered, trouble was their competitors could replicate that overnight if they wished.
Similarly, using more red, changing the headlines from lower case to upper case, increasing the size of the savings devices and so on, were all things that weren’t going to provide a long term solution.
It was pointed out that the consumer was really the one who would be getting frustrated by all of this.
With three similar retailers all claiming to have the best savings, the best choice and the best service there was no point of difference, leaving the consumer very confused.
‘They can’t all have the lowest prices, best range and best service can they?’
Who could the consumer believe?
Fact was the strength of the brand had also been lost in all of this. A large household name, everyone knew what they sold but their advertising bacame too reliant on using well-worn claims. Time to reconnect with the consumer then.
A way of expressing this was adopted and twelve months later sales were much healthier.
Their customer service and pricing was taken as a given because the brand had regained the consumer’s trust, heck they even featured less product more effectively.
In fact they now had a look and character all of their own, while one of their competitors had disappeared.
Location: SinglePost