Month: November 2010

As a Vancouverite, you should feel pretty spoiled to be living in a city where you’ve got all the wicked mountains and ski resorts at your disposal, well at least that’s how I feel. I’m a skier by heart and body, have been for the last 14 years, but all of a sudden I’ve had the urge to give snowboarding a try. I’ve already committed $500 in a season’s pass at Whistler, so why not spend a bit more on a new board? I went to Showcase, Sportchek, Comor, Westcoast Sports etc. and didn’t see anything that interested me until I hit the Boardroom. What made Boardroom so attractive was all that a marketing mix encompasses, cheap prices, excellent products, amazing promotions, and a convenient location. But what really caught my attention was the atmospheric factor-which involved their extremely friendly employees. If you ask me, they may have been a bit too friendly. Now unlike Sportchek, I doubt the employees are on commission, but there’s always this slight nagging feeling that tells me otherwise. They set me up with everything I needed to get started, a board, bindings, and boots, given the cheap budget I’m on. A Rossignol set was presented to me (being a skier I know they’re an amazing company) but wait!! Apparently they make great boards and skis, but their bindings are absolutely horrendous! “That’s okay though because if you spend just $30 more you can get the LX bindings which are a terrific bindings company!!”

So hesitantly I agreed to pay $30 more. I asked for size L and he went to the back to find one that fits my size. But what do you know, no more size L’s for the LX bindings! “But that’s okay, there’s a solution! For just another $30 than what you were going to spend, you can get the Burton Bindings!!” Having already found boots that fit me and a board that I was already attached to, I didn’t want to head to another store at start back at nothing. So what do you know, I gave in.

I felt so stupid afterwards; my ignorance and limited knowledge on snowboards just took $70 out of my wallet! I don’t know how this happened, but I guess this just goes to show how the atmosphere of the store, the kind yet seducing employees, and the convenience of the store’s location play an enormous role in the consumers decisions to purchase..

…despite my uncertainty to whether I got slightly scammed or not, I’m still ecstatic and ready to hit the slopes with my new board!!

Now you may have heard of Rogers’ EVIL marketing schemes, and maybe you don’t really care, but hopefully you’ll  take their adverts with a slight grain of salt after reading this. Most of us have seen their commercials, and I’m not going to lie, some of them can be quite appealing; however,  what I didn’t realize is to what extent they actually bend and twist the truth to lure potential customers.

In one commercial, two guys are on their cellphones talking and they carelessly bump into each other, dropping their phones which end up braking. The Rogers user would take his cellphone back to a Roger’s store where he would get a “free replacement” as explicitly said in the commercial, while the other man would end up using pay phones until he finds himself a new phone. I would suppose this commercial serves as a method to lure potential consumers, as well as to provide current consumers with reason to believe they have chosen the right wireless network (or in other words to reduce post-purchase dissonance). But the funny thing is, I’m a current Rogers user, and I find this commercial accomplishes the exact opposite. The other day, a very similar occurrence happened; I carelessly bumped into a woman and dropped my phone. The text pad was completely destroyed, so logically I went to a Rogers customer service desk and asked for my “free replacement” having seen their commercial. But of course, I should have known better, they said they couldn’t do just that. I had bought the phone 2 months prior to this little misfortune, and apparently I wasn’t covered under their warranty AND that the phone is damaged. Well of course it’s damaged! That’s why I wanted a replacement! They told me there was nothing they could do for me and implicitly said I should leave. I was enraged and asked them what the heck their commercial was all about. The CS representative opened the commercial and pointed at the bottom of the screen; one can see (only were he shown) that it says “conditions apply”. The conditions: if the phone is damaged or not under the warranty timeline, there’s nothing they can do.

Well isn’t that just wonderful; I hope they’re happy, they just lost what used to be a loyal customer, and I’m sure I’m not the only who’s had this experience. I find it ironic too, what they aimed to eliminate, post-purchase dissonance, is exactly what they received.

It was 8:45pm on a Wednesday evening and I was on the 99 B-line heading to Calhoun’s Cafe  ready to pull an all-nighter for my midterm exams. I got off at the Mackenzie stop by Safeway, and as I knew was low on groceries (specifically cereal), I thought I’d quickly buy what I needed and head to the 24/7 dungeon. I only took out one item, my favourite Vector cereal, and made my way to the cashier. The woman there was rather old and unsociable, and what annoyed me was that she didn’t smile nor give me a welcoming “Hello” like must employees do.

She scanned the cereal and as a regular at Safeway, I immediately I gave her my Safeway consumer loyalty card phone number for any possible discounts. As I got through the first three digits of my phone number, she stopped me and said in a foreign accent, “Oh, no..no need..no discount.” I was completely shocked!! I came back at her with a more aggressive voice than I had wished, asking her what the heck she was doing?! Rejecting a consumer loyalty card number when I’m giving it to her willingly!? I don’t think she understands what the card is for; it’s not just about discounts, it’s also to give Safeway, as well as other corporate partners, an idea of what consumers are buying, when they’re buying, how many items they’re buying, and who the consumers are. All she could respond with was “no discount no discount!!!” I understand that cashier jobs are not always the highest paying jobs and the employees may not be the most educated, but surely they’re taught all this in their training!!! I’ve never had such a job, so I guess I wouldn’t know if they are, but would someone enlighten me?? It’s killing me!!

But what shocked me was how I reacted to all of this. I guess this is all thanks to Tamar and her Marketing class. I’m starting to look at everything through a Marketer’s point of view, which somewhat scares me, because after all, I think I scared that poor old woman

even if she did deserve it…