Monday 13 August 2007

Brand promise and delivery


One of the things I love about the Apple Store is the Genius Bar.

Gotta problem with your Mac or iPod? Simply ask the person behind the bar and they’ll solve it. Genius!

Calling it the Genius Bar is pretty risky though. It reeks of that age old brand problem of over-promise and under-deliver.

Being Apple of course, they deliver.

This weekend I popped into a hardware store and had the opposite experience.

I needed to buy Loctite to fix a loose screw on my son’s guitar.

Loctite, for those of you who don’t know, is a liquid adhesive used to secure screws and bolts.

It is a pretty common item available at any hardware store.

“Can I help you?” said the enthusiastic girl behind the counter at my hardware store.

Loctite, I replied. Can you tell me where to find Loctite?

Without any hesitation the girl replied, “It’s in aisle 4. That’s where we keep the locks.”

Genius!