If you’re going to make some sort of guarantee or have a marketing message, it’s very important that you say what you mean (and vice versa). When consumers go out of their way to pick your brand based on your message, you want to make sure that they get what they think they’re getting. If a customer thinks you mean one thing, and finds out it isn’t so, they won’t just be confused, they’ll be a little peeved – which can undo all the effort you’ve spent marketing the message in the first place.
So I recently bought a Canon MP980 multi-function printer. Very nice. Pretty happy with it. Like most printers, it’s a bit of a ink hog, and I ran out of a few inks yesterday. I was out running errands after a meeting and remembered that Staples advertised an “in stock” guarantee on printer cartridges. Normally I buy refilled cartridges from a local shop, but I haven’t been there for this printer and it was out of the way, so Staples seemed like a good way to save myself time. After spending quite a bit of time looking through all the cartridges to find the ones that were listed on the card for my printer, I still couldn’t find the special yellow ink (that’s specific to this printer). – As an aside, why don’t they stock inks based on the printers instead of making you look everything up? –
I found a stock person to help, and he looked down the list and said, “we don’t stock that one”. To which I replied, “what about the in stock guarantee?” “Well, you have to order that one online, where it’s in stock.” OK. I guess technically in stock could mean that it’s available somewhere in your company. To me, in stock means that if I go to your store, you’ll have it right there. The second option is valuable to me as a consumer – it saves me time from having to hunt for the ink. The first doesn’t get me anything – I can do my own searching online – and the minute I do go online, I’m going to search all supplies, not just Staples.
Upon searching their site, Staples does have some fine print that says that the guarantee applies only to the inks they regularly stock. So, I guess they covered themselves, but as a consumer, I don’t particularly care. I just know that they don’t necessarily have an ink in stock, even though they claimed so. Fine print may be fine for lawyers, but consumers don’t really care.
What do you think?
(photo by digitalART2 @ Flickr CC)
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