Tom Asacker: A Clear Eye for Branding
Very interesting interview on the Being Reasonable blog.
The quote I like best:
Let’s call loyalty what it really is - repeat patronage - nothing more than a series of mutual concessions: “You give me the feelings that I value (in a product, service, event, etc.) and I’ll give you what you value (money, time, attention, referrals, etc.) And if I decide to transact with you for a second, third, or fourth time it’s simply because I expect something in return. It has absolutely nothing to do with loyalty. It has to do with staying tuned in to your audience’s changing preferences. And being turned on to continuously seduce your audience with emotion, passion, and new and relevant products and services.
I love this as it summarizes some thoughts I’ve had for a while. In fact, one of my friends who is also an eBay seller, and not even one of our customers, said it best:
Your vendor is not your partner. Your vendor is your vendor.
I could just as easily finish his own paragraph and say something like “… and when my vendor doesn’t meet my needs anymore, I’ll find a new vendor.” I don’t care what kind of pricing model, gimmicks, or “You have a partner in us” BS messaging you came up with this week.
Sure when things are going well things may feel this way: on both sides even. But I think an important lesson for vendors is how diligent you have to be to stay on top of things. For example, if your primary application is delivered over the web, and it’s critical for someone’s day to day livelihood (and not just the Web 2.0 meme of the week), try having a week of downtime. Warm fuzzies: gone. Partner messaging: gone.
The first thing your customers will say is: Get your website back up and running, partner, while they start to look for a new provider in their free time. Which by the way, is only a Google search away.