I subscribe to J.Crew’s emails, and often receive offers and discounts which I tend to trash immediately- I NEVER spend enough to actually apply the discounts. Today, however, I received something much different. It was an apology from J.Crew Chairman and CEO Millard Drexler, and President Tracy Gardner. Apparently, the retailer has been having some issues with customers ordering online and via phone.
I have differing opinions about the apology. At first glance, I thought how rare it is to see a sincere apology from a retailer, let alone a large company. I commended J.Crew for caring about customer experiences and making an honest effort to retain their business.
But as I’ve thought about it a little further, I’m not completely sold. I didn’t experience any problems or issues because I didn’t purchase from them online or over the phone. Should I be apologize to? Probably not. Admitting fault is always right, but J.Crew would have been far better served using their data to apologize to those actually affected by their ‘issues.’ Also, I question just how sincere the apology is; it is not written in the “you view” whatsoever, and simply makes excuses why issues occurred. It also leaves the customer very left out- what problems led to the issues? What ‘enhancements’ are being made that will improve customer experiences? J.Crew had an opportunity to be transparent with consumers and deepen existing relationships by offering more insight and perhaps better incentives to remain loyal customers. Instead, they went with a half-hearted email apology. Hopefully they know their customers better than I do.
I’ve had this theme for a little bit now, and I’ve finally taken the time to do something with the change in colors option. Each color now has a nifty themed header! Feel free to check them all out, and stick with the one that makes you feel best today. I plan on rotating headers in and out every few weeks- be sure to keep an eye out for new designs!
I’m a pretty big fan of Facebook- not so much the company itself, but more so the interactions I have with my friends on the site. I don’t really have a ton of applications, and it was even a stretch for me adding Bumper Stickers, although I enjoy them now. That said, I’m sure you can think of someone who is really obsessed with FBook, has an obscene amount of apps and is a self-professed Facebook Creeper.
This video, taken from Current, cracks my shit up. It really plays into how obsessed people are/can get with Facebook, and puts it in a very entertaining form. Enjoy.
I hate writing posts where I slam people for shitty work because ‘What do I know?’ I don’t really have much experience. But sometimes the criticism is warranted. Take for example the many blunders from Yum Brands.
Most recently, they requested 50 Cent to change his name to 79, 89 or 99 Cent for a day to help promote T-Bell’s new value menu. The payoff? A pathetic $10,000 donation to a charity of 50’s choice. Are you kidding me? Anyone with the financial stability of 50 Cent is going to laugh at your offer; they’d rather donate the 10K to charity to have Taco Bell leave them the hell alone.
But this isn’t the first piece of excellent work on Yum’s behalf. Oh no, KFC offered Rihanna and Chris Brown free wings if they showed up at one of their stores. Wonder what dinosaur thought of that gem. I just can’t believe how that ridiculously prejudicial idea even made it to the editors.
One last beaut, apparently KFC also offered to donate $260,000 to its own educational foundation if an NFL player ‘flapped their wings’ in the end zone during the Super Bowl. Glad to see it takes an act of stupidity by someone else for Yum to donate money to their own foundation.
To Yum’s credit, they did plan one decent promotion of late. During March Madness, if a bottom-seeded team advanced to the Final Four, Pizza Hut would give away free pizza to that campus. Of course, this feat has never been achieved, and likely never will. I don’t love this promotion, but it doesn’t place the brand in a compromising position, and even aligns the brand with underdog teams which I don’t think occurs enough.
I’m all about donating money through creative avenues, and I know you can’t just give all your profits away on a whim, but these acts of stupidity leave me wanting to avoid being associated with their brands.
I pulled the vitals of this post from an article on Ad Age. Give them some love too!
Turns out, I have internet access here in Arkansas which I really didn’t expect. I’m in a somewhat remote area of the Ozarks on Bull Shoals Lake. Its been freaking hot so far- mid 90’s yesterday and today, so I’m making use of my time inside enjoying the AC.
Going along with the vacationing/leisurely theme, Ad Age today had a delightful article about agencies with bars at their offices. Personally, I think its a pretty sweet deal if you happen to work there. In creative settings, I could imagine a few after-work drinks actually stimulating some great dialouge between co-workers, and who knows maybe the next great campaign could come from it. If not, who cares- you are creating value for your staffers and allowing them to connect outside of the work environment. I wouldn’t choose an agency specifically if they had a bar or not, but it would probably tip the scales on similarly matched shops.
My girlfriend and I were at Lincoln Park Zoo Tuesday evening, and had a bit of a confrontation with a security guard on duty. We had spent most of the day at North Avenue Beach, and decided to walk through the Zoo to end our day. Lincoln Park Zoo is free and there are many gates where you can freely walk in. These gates have no signage indicating hours or any Zoo information. Blissfully ignorant, we walked into the park to enjoy the animals on display.
Only about half an hour in, a not-so friendly security guard began yelling at us ‘The park is closed!’ We really didn’t expect the Zoo to be closing when it did, but whatever. We kept walking through to begin finding an exit, and the guard kept yelling. ‘You can’t go that way! What are you doing? The park is closed!’ Not understanding why we couldn’t continue on, we kept walking. ‘Hey! That gate is closed!’ referring to a gate a few hundred feet away that we hadn’t even noticed. During all this yelling, she was following us like we were 5th graders on a field trip. After being thwarted by a locked gate, we really were lost for direction. Luckily, a patrolling police officer came to our aid, as he had witnessed some of our verbal beating.
In 10 seconds of conversation, the police officer was absolutely more helpful (and friendly) than the security guard had been for over a minute. The officer told us where exactly to exit the Zoo, and did not yell for going the ‘wrong way’.
So what does this have to do with business, and more importantly marketing? Well, during the guard’s yelling, my first reactions were actually thinking how uneffective her communication was. She offered no assistance, no insight to a solution, and basically had us going in circles. Sound like anyone’s marketing? Maybe customer service has acted this way before? The point being made here is to focus on your communications; is what you’re saying effective? Does it offer support, guidance and insight to a customer’s solution? If not, you may just be coming across as rude, ignorant or stupid, and your customers will go elsewhere without thinking.
I hate writing 
