Watching the Lance Armstrong interview I couldn't help but think of the
classic saying, "If it seems too good to be true it probably is." This
also caused me to consider how often 'sayings' seem to be accurate.
Maybe it is because sayings arise from collective wisdom over time.
It is this idea of collective wisdom that then caused me to wonder about
the ripple effect of Lance's admissions. Will consumers become more
skeptical of corporate behaviours?
This morning I noticed this article in The Age Newspaper,
Subway, where a foot is a step back.
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Matt Corby's 11 inch 'footlong' sub. Photo: Facebook |
Perth teenager Matt Corby posted a photo of his 'foot-long' sub on
Subway's Facebook page. It clearly indicated that his sub was only 11
inches long. That's 91.67% of a 12 inch sub. Imagine if you only
received 91.67% of most things that you buy. Collective wisdom suggests
to me that most people expect a Footlong Sub to be pretty close to 12
inches long. I don't know about you but I've always thought that a foot
long sub meant that it was supposed to be 12 inches long. Given they
also have a 'Six Inch Sub' this perception is reinforced by other items
on their menu.
I quite like Subway and this article isn't about them. Rather, it's
about their response and what it represents to consumers. This is what
Subway Australia posted on Facebook in response to Matt's photo.
"With regards to the size of the bread and calling it a footlong,
'Subway Footlong' is a registered trademark as a descriptive name for
the sub sold in Subway restaurants and not intended to be a measurement
of length."
Hopefully Matt's sub is an aberration. But what if it isn't? Personally
I'm not going to pull out a measuring tape every time I buy a sub and if
I really think about it, 'nearly 12 inches' would be good enough. But
11 inches is not good enough. Skeptically do you think that people will
be posting images of 13 inch subs? I don't think so. (Hmmm some
skepticism slipping in there...)
Which brings me to my point. The Lance Armstrong admission is going to
make consumers more skeptical of what they are being sold and the
intentions of organisations. It will also make them more skeptical of
the responses that organisations provide, such as the response provided
above from Subway. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out
that if your product is only 91.67% of the size that the market expects,
but you are 'getting away' with selling it at the smaller size
then your cost savings go straight to your bottom line. People aren't
stupid. They can work these things out and social media makes it easy
for them to provide this feedback.
The problem that Subway may have is that their Footlong Subs may in fact
only be 11 inches long. In other words, over time their system may have
been changed so that is what they produce. Despite the name being
'Footlong' they may have created a system that creates a gap between
what they are marketing and what they are actually saying. These
decisions may have been made a long time ago with the benefits of those
changes going to Subway and not their consumers. No doubt many
organisations have made similar decisions - but these decision create a
Market Communication Gap. What the market perceives they are going to get is different to what it actually gets. Ultimately this creates poor service.
What are your thoughts? Will Lance Armstrong's admissions drive consumer skepticism and what does this mean for organisations?
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