Branding, Books, And Bitchiness

The other day I was at Chapters. For those of you who aren’t from Canada, Chapters is one of those giant bookstores that sell books, magazines, knick knacks, food, coffee, appliances, cars, and the occasional house. Kind of like Barnes and Noble, I guess, or that store in You’ve Got Mail. Anyway, the point is I was there buying a book and I was reminded of the reason it is so crucial for a large company to brand properly.

Let me tell you what happened. Chapters, like many retail chains, has a discount program. Basically, if you purchase a discount card for $20 for the year, they will allow you to save 10% on any purchases you make that year (the concept of paying for a discount is a little counter intuitive, but my husband signed us up for this).

When deciding if we wanted to purchase this discount card, my husband, who knows and loves me, asked a very important question. He knows I often leave the house without my wallet, and that there is no point in buying a discount card if I’m not going to carry it with me. So he asked the salesperson “Does she have to carry the card with her when she makes a purchase?”. To which the salesperson replied “Absolutely not. We can look her up by her name and address.” Perfect - one discount card purchased.

Now we are about 8 months into having owned this stupid card, which was promptly lost around month 1, week 3. At first, this wasn’t a problem. I would walk up to the counter, present my purchase, and when asked if I had a discount card I would say “Yes, but not with me.”. The salesperson would cheerfully ask me my name and address, and would apply my 10% discount.

Everybody was happy.

But recently, things have started to change. First, they started asking my name, address, and date of birth. Then they started asking for name, address, date of birth, and some kind of ID with my name on it. This is a problem for me because as mentioned I often don’t have my wallet with me. However, I do carry my bank card, because I have been known to engage in delightful and spontaneous shopping activities.

This brings me to the other day. I walked up to make my purchase as usual, and the sales woman asked me if I had a discount card. I told her that I did but that I did not have it with me. I was already pulling out my bank card to present to her when she said “Well, you don’t get a discount, then. If you don’t have your discount card you can’t receive a discount.”

She told me it was always store policy to insist on the discount card, she cannot look me up by name and address, in any case my bank card was not acceptable as ID, and she couldn’t imagine any of her colleagues breaking store policy like that. And she would know, because she’s worked there for four years and she’s never heard of anyone breaking the policy. In the history of the store, no-one has broken it. Ever.

What does this have to do about branding?

Well, let’s ignore the last statement made by the sales woman in which she basically called me a liar. I’ll have plenty of opportunities to bitch about that in the weeks to come. I have no issues with a chain making policies surrounding a discount card, and if they do, I assume they have good reasons to do so. (I’m sure there are hundreds, nay THOUSANDS of people walking around with fake identities, stealing their neighbors name to save sixty cents on a Harlequin.)

But now I’m pissed.

Let’s think about how this situation could have gone differently. Let’s consider how many times their own policy was misrepresented to me or my representatives (by this I mean Jamie, but I’ve always wanted to have representatives).

One - Jamie was told we did not need to have the card physically present in order to use it.

Two - On numerous occasions I was able to use the card my giving my name and address.

Three - On many more numerous occasions I was able to use the card by giving my name, address, and bank card as ID.

Four - I was finally told that the discount card I had purchased was useless to me and they would no longer accept it.

Now I’m pissed. (Yes, I mentioned that before. But I’m still pissed.) I had planned to do a lot of my Christmas shopping there. (I like to give books because then I don’t actually have to think about the recipient. Also, much easier to wrap than, say, a bag of golf clubs.)

Branding is about commitment and consistency.

It is about ensuring your customer has the same experience, each and every time. Hopefully that experience is a good one when it comes to your home business, but I almost feel that a consistent lousy experience is better than inconsistent good ones.

Because of poor branding, Amazon will be getting all of my business from now on. This is probably for the best anyway since Amazon won’t pay me for my Associates income with money like a normal company and they’re paying in gift certificates anyway. What does a person have to do to get a cheap book around here?

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By Naomi Dunford