When a Minute Isn't (Anywhere Near) Sixty Seconds

I was really hoping to find some examples of great marketing to blog about.  I feel bad that many recent posts have been about marketing and promotion that just doesn't get it.  Unfortunately, I guess, there is much more of bad marketing out there than good marketing.

Case in point.

A big drug chain has just gotten into the market for walk-in clinical services.  That's good ... more convenience for the customer ... more points of distribution.  I needed a vaccination and so I decided to utilize the new service rather than scheduling a visit to my doctor.  So far, so good.  The sign at the door said that the clinic handled routine physicals, minor ailments and vaccinations. 

The name of the clinic is "Minute Clinic."  Also not bad.  In fact, the premise (and the promise) sound really good.  Convenience.  No hassle. 

The concept is good, though, only as long as the brand lives up to the promise.  And that's where the problem starts.

I arrived at the clinic at about 11:45 a.m.  There was a sign on the door stating that the clinician was on a "mandatory" one hour lunch break and would return about noon.  In the meantime, I was invited to enter all of my patient information onto a very awkward touch screen system.  It would have been much easier to fill in a piece of paper.  Once I filled in all of the information the screen indicated that I would be the next patient and the wait time would be fifty minutes.  Since I had to wait, I left the store and came back fifty minutes later.  Upon my return, the clinic was open ... but the clinician was handling another customer.  The screen indicated my wait time would be thirty-five minutes.   So at this "Minute Clinic" I waited eighty five minutes for service.  When I finally saw the clinician, he asked what type of vaccination I needed ... and when I told him he said that he didn't handle that ... and that I had to go to the pharmacy counter (and wait in line) to get vaccinated. 

I left without getting vaccinated ... and I don't have a good feeling about the "Minute Clinic" brand.

The lesson here is to be careful about the brand promise.  Only promise what you can deliver.  And deliver it. 

Promotional Backfire

A friend of mine posted a message on her Facebook page about a shopping experience.  She went into a store and purchased more than $50 in merchandise.  On her way out the door, she saw a poster that said customers would get a free tee shirt with purchases over $50.  So, not surprisingly, she went back into the store and asked for the tee shirt, but was told that they were out of stock.

Her Facebook post included a sad face and a message to her many friends about her negative experience with the store.  So, while the store intended the promotion to generate good will, mishandling the promotion caused it to backfire.

Some lessons:

- The Internet can make a bad customer experience a very public event
- Make sure that promotional material clearly communicates the terms of the offer ("while supplies last")

The really simple lesson:  Store personnel need to pay attention to what's going on in the store.  When the tee shirts were out of stock, it would have been very easy to take the sign down.  

AT&T Offends Half Its Audience

Click Here to See the Ad

AT&T's Mobile Share program is designed for small business.  That's cool.  The television ad that they have created depicts staff of a realty company asking questions and getting answers about the service.  That's cool, too.  Four of the five of the actors are female.  Also cool.

What's not cool is the fact that the single male portrayed in the spot is cast as a total idiot.  He plays an insecure and bumbling counterpoint to confident and assertive women.  I understand the value of humor in advertising, but why would you create humor that is potentially offensive to half of the population of small business operators?

Here's a test to see whether this situation is offensive or not.  What if the roles were reversed?  What if the ad featured four confident and assertive men along with a woman who is an insecure and bumbling idiot?  I bet AT&T would be swamped with complaints.  Humor shouldn't insult the audience.  Shame on AT&T for insulting a significant portion of its target audience.  

How Promotions Can Fail - An Example

Ala Moana Shopping Center is Hawaii's largest mall.  It features Macy's and Nieman Marcus as anchor stores, high end shops like Abercrombie and Fitch, and a variety of food in a food court along with standard fast food operators like McDonald's and Arby's.

Most stores in the mall depend on traffic generated by the mall's appeal to create visibility and sales.  That's why you pay the big rents at popular malls like Ala Moana.  Occasionally malls feel the need (often prompted by vocal but not-very-sophisticated) of small merchants to "do something" to boost sales.  After all, these stores are generally paying into a merchant marketing fund.  In my career, I've had outlets in malls and I've always told the mall management to spend the marketing money to drive traffic to the mall - not to try to advertise my store.  I'd be happy with more traffic.

This Independence Day Holiday, the management of Ala Moana apparently succumbed to pressure from small operators to run a promotional ad in the Sunday newspaper.  The ad probably made the merchants happy but I doubt that it generated real business for the mall or its tenants.  Here's why:

• It's difficult for the consumer to understand or use.  The ad copy says "show this pass at any participating store from July 3-6 and receive 20% off one regular priced item per store per day."  What "pass"?  There's no actual "pass" or coupon.  The consumer is expected to understand that the whole ad is a coupon based on a tiny scissors icon which appears (delicately) on the side of the ad.  
• The "Big News" ... 20% savings ... is buried in the ad.
• It's difficult to administer.  How are the stores going to enforce the "one regular priced item per store per day"?  The type is so small, they can't use a stamp or even write in some sort of validation.  
• With small merchants, I'm willing to bet that many of the sales staff won't be aware of the promotion.  There's nothing more frustrating for a consumer than to go into a store expecting to get a discount and have the sales associate say "I have to check with the manager."  Or ... try to figure out how to ring up the discount on a point of sales system.  
• The ad features a lot of stores, but not the ones that the customer may actually care about.  There's nothing here for Macy's, Nieman Marcus, or Abercrombie & Fitch.  There are a few food outlets including Jack in the Box, but not McDonald's or Arby's. 

Here is another case of marketing dollars that probably will go to waste.  

Aerial Advertising in Hawaii ...

Despite the county's ban on aerial advertising, a company is trying to start flying a plane towing banners across Waikiki Beach.  Is this where it all leads??

I'm a free market kinda guy, but I think a community has a right to establish rules.