Breaking your Brand Promise
When my daughter was about 8 months old we received 5 Disney books in the mail. What a great idea I thought.
I relate to this shameless promotion by Disney in two ways.
1) I wish my daughter could grow up in ‘logo free / brand free’ world. However, although I think this is unobtainable in today’s society (while living in a city anyway) it would be a wonderful place. Kids could grow up just being themselves without having to be pressured to belong to ‘the cool and most popular brand tribe’ of that moment.
2) As a branding expert, what Disney did is brilliant marketing. By offsetting the cost of a few books in exchange for many years (if not a life time) of loyalty to Disney, the kids would buy Disney DVD’s, toys and apply consistent pressure to their parent to take them to Disney World etc. in the future.
Fast forward 8 months.
My wife got a call from Disney saying that they never received their payment for the books. My wife was confused. What payment? The lady explained that the books came with a payment slip and we were due to have paid for them or have returned them several months ago. She asked that we either pay it now or return them. My wife refused both requests. Why on earth would we pay for postage and packaging for a product that we never requested in the first place. The lady on the phone was nice and polite and eventually she suggested that we donated the books to the library. Again, a brilliant strategic move, now many kids can enjoy / become hooked on the wonders of Disney.
Brands are built on a collective experience of a certain company or product. Disney’s brand is that they ‘deliver magic’ and people’s experience of them is fun. After this episode our experience of Disney has shifted. They are cheeky & advantageous–causing frustration, confusion and wasting our time, (especially as my wife is a good citizen and actually followed through and took the books to the library).
Will this experience prevent me from ever interacting with their products again – no, probably not. However it has left a bad taste in my mouth. Like any reputation, once tarnished it takes something extra special, sometimes something extraordinary to make up for the initial disappointment. Maybe this post will trigger a response from someone at Disney. I will wait and see ‘if the magic comes my way’.
The lesson here is to be consistent. Don’t try to be sneaky or try to get away with something that is slightly ‘off brand’. Your customers are intelligent consumers and will notice when what they have come to rely on is not being delivered in the way that they now demand.
