It seems that some food providers have pushed the false marketing boundaries to such an extent that their ploy’s may backfire.
I sat down to try and enjoy a ‘Thai Green Chicken Curry’ ready meal yesterday evening and was perplexed as to why the food container was such a strange shape. It then dawned on me that the large diameter at the top of the packaging made the meal more appealing in layout and proportions than it actually was.
Now this seems a big mistake to me. Yes you get my money once, but will I and others return to your product if we think that we have been hoodwinked? I mean, it’s only a ‘Thai Green Chicken Curry’ but you have to ask why the base of the container needed those four protruding bits to support the unbalanced whole. The truth is that the four bits are needed because otherwise the thing falls over. Now that seems like a whole lot of engineering and smoke and mirrors for very little profit, and a loss of goodwill.
The same situation applies with the coffee shoppy and that piece of card that lifts up the sandwich to make it bigger than it is. Why on earth would a retailer use ‘smoke n mirrors’ to hoodwink loyal customers who already pay a premium for what is after all a self service operation? Why would anyone want to squeeze more out of those who already give enough? Maybe it's about time that you started to think about how your false marketing affects your business as a whole. You may sell your ready meal, but you may lose £80 worth of fuel sales when I go elsewhere. Oh, and that's £80 time and time again.
I bought one ready meal and one sandwich, but I won’t buy twice. Worse for them is that I may also avoid other products or even take my custom elsewhere. Brand identity is important, but brand loyalty can have serious repercussions for a provider if that loyalty is lost.
Now there’s an idea; truth in marketing – sell something as it is:
“roll up, roll up. Try our succulent piggy strips that have been cut just right and lightly fried before being caringly placed at the front of our fine textured dual dough mixture. Then warmed inside our temperature controlled electric personal user griddle, after being lovingly cared for in our premium pack care and presentation range that includes value added extra lifting card for premium display and customer encouragement”...
...“Yes please mate, I’ll have a toasted bacon sandwich”.
Custom Search
