Designed to fail

Rogers Sugar packaging

They say not to, but you know that most of the customers will pick up this bag of sugar by the fold. So if you know that customers are going to pick up the bag by the fold, and the fold is a weak point, you have two choices.

1. Improve the strength
2. Warn people not to pick up the bag by the fold.

The first would be the rational thing to do, because you obviously know that is how customers are picking up the product. But it is cheaper to print "Please Do No Pick Up By The Fold" than improve the quality of the glue. (And I'm not even going to talk about the fact that the notice is in English only, while I'm pretty sure that it should by bilingual.)

High Speed Security?

Sign in restaurant window, Kelowna

This restaurant has decided to make "High Speed ss et ilable" for it customers. Or it may be that the restaurant is providing "High Speed Wireless Internet".

Why put this sign behind the security stickers? And is security provided by both firms?

Nothing like a concerted effort to confuse the customer. Do these business owners ever take a look at the outside of their businesses?

It's the National Globe and Mail Post

Newspaper rack at WestJet check-in at Vancouver airport

The rack says that is holds the National Post, but that is not what I find on the rack. I find The Globe and Mail.

So, who has failed? WestJet? The Globe and Mail? The National Post? I'd say all three. How can errors like this persist?

I'm so old

The walking penis at the OCSU Sexual Health Awareness Day, Okanagan College, Kelowna

Okay, I'm showing my age. I don't think about stuff like STDs. I've been married since the late 20th century, and I've never had any reason to be concerned with STDs.

But the world has changed and as they say in court, ignorance of the law is no excuse. If you are not willing to discuss sexual health, then the odds are they you may end up with some problems in the area.

The table was filled with samples and brochures covering every sort of sexual activity.

Table at the OCSU Sexual Health Awareness Day

 For me the most interesting thing was that the female students seemed to be the ones paying the most attention to the samples, and information. Not at all surprising.

Hey, that's not your email address

Sign  outside La Belle Boutique, Kelowna

Since 1971 when US computer scientist Ray Tomlinson first used the '@' symbol in an email, people have been using the '@' to seperate the name of the recipient from the name of the domain.

So, why can't this store get it right? It should be something like "info@labelleboutique.ca. Is that so hard?

Sometimes I just have to roll my eyes and wonder what the heck is going through people's heads.

Hey, that's not your logo

Anniversary sign in the window of The Greatful Fed pub, Kelowna

I notice logos and typefaces. It may be the vicarious art school eduction I recevied via my wife, or the years I spent as an agent for illustrators and photographers, or perhaps all of my years teaching marketing.

But anyway, I was walking along Bernard Street in Kelwona and saw this sign. My first thought was that the pub was doing some promotion with Yahoo. Nope, they are just borrowing the logo to attract attention.

That's a bit naughty. And what benefit does it give to the pub?

Hiding the hours and annoying the customers

Cafe Soleil restaurant, Kelowna

Most retail businesses post their hours on the front door, but not Cafe Soleil.

On the front door all we see is the "Sorry we're CLOSED" sign.

Front door at Cafe Soleil, Kelowna

And were are the restaurant's hours posted? On that little illuminated sign over on the far left side of the front window.

Hours at Cafe Soleil, Kelowna

 
I can understand why the sign is there, proximity to an electrical outlet. But wouldn't hours posted on the front door be more helpful for customers?

Is it asking too much to actually think about your customers once in a while?

Who cares?

Sticker on the door of The Downtown Shoe Store

Third-party opinions are an important factor in consumer decision making. The good review, the recommendation from the friend, or the award from the local paper all go towards making consumer think that their purchase decision has less risk.

But is an award from 14 years ago really meaningful. Do you want to buy the computer that was top rated in 1999? How about 1999's industry leading cellphone? And you're convinced that a 1999 Taurus would be a great choice?

What's the old saying, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all"?

Well I'd say if your only recommendation is 14 years old, then you might be better off with no recommendation at all. This says that no one has had a positive opinion of this retailer since 1999. And if no one else thinks that this store is any good, the why should I.

Not the colour you expect

Texas Instruments TI-30X IIS Calculator

Last week at school I saw a student with this calculator. I've never seen this particular model in any colour other than black.

I asked the student where they bought it. They didn't buy it, they found it in a hotel room. They said they have never seen another one since.

Is this a good line extension for Texas Instruments? Well, it adds both SKUs and therefore inventory carrying costs. In the past Texas Instruments seems to have been abiding by Henry Ford's maxim, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."

Manufacturers walk a delicate line. More colours can increase sales, but they also push up costs. And if you start selling your products in colours that people don't expect, they may not see it on the shelf. (I was looking for the black calculator.)

Of course, looking at that orange colour, I thought that it might have been a special edition for Home Depot.

Do I want a fast order or fast delivery?

Sign on the door at Mosaic Books, Kelowna

I like book stores. No, that is not correct, I love book stores. I can think of no nicer way to spend a rainy afternoon that wandering around a book store with a couple of hundred dollars burning a hole in my pocket.

But book stores, even Toronto's 64,000 square foot "World's Biggest Bookstore" (http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/home/storeLocator/storeDetails/200/), can carry only a small fraction of the books available from on-line book sellers.

So, is this claim from Mosaic, an independent book seller in Kelowna compelling? Do I want fast ordering? Or am I really looking for fast delivery?

If you don't phrase your benefit in terms that are meaningful to your customers then is it really a benefit?

A good fit with the ocassion

Sign for Family Day sale at Wild Mountain, Kelowna

Family Day is a new holiday in British Columbia. I saw this sign for a sale over the "Family Day Weekend" in a local shop.

Now regular readers may be expecting me to pick this apart for come minor infraction, but I think that this sign is done pretty well.

The weather on the holiday Monday was not too cold, a  perfect day for skiing at the local hill, Big White. And the people are the chairlift appear to be a mother and child.

Overall, a great job and a good fit with the time of year, and the needs of both the retailer (Getting rid of winter merchandise) and the consumer (Getting a great deal and heading to the slopes.)

Pink for girls? What a shock!

Sign on Kinder Surprise display at Shoppers Drug Mart

Kinder Surprise eggs at Shoppers Drug Mart

Last week I saw this display at my local Shoppers Drug Mart. Kinder Surprise has now licensed two very popular brands from Mattel.

To sell more eggs to girls Kinder has licensed Barbie, and to sell more eggs to boys the firm licensed Hot Wheels.

And how are the different eggs distinguished? Pink for girls.

Is pink for girls a self-fulfilling prophecy? My daughter has lots of pink clothes, and a couple of Barbie dolls, but at the moment her favourite underwear is covered with images of Thomas the Tank Engine. In addition to a treasure chest full of dolls and stuffed animals, she also building blocks and about 100 cars and trucks in her room.

When playing with cars she does not care about colour, except to say that the fire trucks should be all be red. We don't have pink fire trucks for girls, so when trying to see to little girls why does everything else need to be pink?

What the hell?

2010 Hello Kitty Chardonnay (Source: http://www.amazon.com/Hello-Kitty-California-Chardonnay-750ml/dp/B00861VYTG)

Hello Kitty wine (Source: http://www.amazon.com/Hello-Kitty-California-Chardonnay-750ml/dp/B00861VYTG)

What genius thought that this was a good idea? Using Hello Kitty, the favourite of 7-year old girls the world over, to sell wine.

It is no wonder that consumer advocates get their knickers in a twist about marketing to children.

Real paint from a real paint store?

Benjamin Moore store in Kelowna

Sign in the parking lot outside the Benjamin Moore store in Kelowna

For the moment I'm going to ignore the typo on the sign ("colourfull" instead of "colouful") and concentrate on the message.

Evidently Benjamin Moore paint colours are frequently copied by other paint companies. A customer will see a colour they like in the Benjamin Moore range and then take the paint chip to another firm to get the colour "knocked off" at a lower price.

But isn't paint just paint? According to the manager at the Benjamin Moore store, the firm has its own pigment and paint manufacturing processes that are superior to those used by the competition. Hence, some people looking to save a few bucks may try to get the Banjamin Moore colour in a cheaper paint brand.

I have no idea if the Benjamin Moore paints really are superior, but they seem to get consistently good reviews. Next time I'm painting I may give them a try.

Nice sign, or at least it used to be

Sign at the back of BC Liquor Store

This thoroughly trashed sign is attached to the rear of a building housing a BC Liquor Store. And not just any BC Liquor Store, but a a "Signature" store. These stores carry a larger range and have better trained staff.

It appears that they do not have better trained delivery drivers.

The sign is position in such a  way that every truck backing up to the store's loading dock runs the risk of hitting the sign. And based on the number of damaged letters I'd have to say that a good proportion of the drivers have managed to hit the sign.

I don't fully blame the drivers, the sign is in the wrong place and sticks out too far from the wall.

Just another piece of bad planning at retail.

And where are the tools made?

Summit Tools flyer - February 1,2013

This flyer was included in last week's copy of the local community newspaper.

I have a long history of tackling home renovation projects and so I have a passing interest in tools. (Over the years I've essayed electricity, played with plumbing and plaster, and fumbled with framing.)

Summit Tools is a Canadian company, based in Burnaby , British Columbia. On the website is a rather impressive graphic showing the logos of the brands that the firm carries.

Logo of Brands carried by Summit Tools (Source: http://www.summittools.com)

As I was looking through the flyer I noticed listings for a few items that mentioned the country of origin. Three made in the USA, one made in Canada, and one made in Germany. In all the flyer lists 300 different products, and the country of origin is only listed for five of them. My natural assumption is that none of the other products are made in the United States, Canada or Germany, or in any other countries that might be a selling point.

And what other countries might be a selling point? Italy, Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom all spring to mind as reasonably reliable sources of tools.

The only conclusion I can come to is that the other 295 products come from countries that are not a convincing selling point. China springs to mind.

Fifty or sixty years ago, "Made in Japan" was often a damning indictment of quality. Now it is one of the hallmarks of quality. Will China get there, or will :Made in China" be something that a retailer is ashamed of, or at the very least does not want to promote?

There are some many poor quality products manufactured in China that "Made in China" carries a taint that will be hard to overcome. I can't see it happening in the next 10 years.

It's not just the packaging that sucks

CoreMicro USB Stick (Source: http://www.staples.ca/core+micro+usb/directory_core+micro+usb_20051_1_20001)

Back in August 2012, I wrote about the rather poor packaging for these flash drives. (http://mba4rent.blogspot.ca/2012/08/we-cant-do-math.html)

Well, it is not only the packaging that has problems, the flash drives themselves are horrible. In November 2012, I had to replace my CoreMicro 32gb USB Flash Drive as it stopped working. The receipt was buried somewhere, so I was not asking about a refund. I noticed that the CoreMicro flash drives were not stocked with the other brands, but were in a Plexiglas box on the service counter. When I asked the manager about this he said that the quality was so bad that they didn't want to stock them with the regular brands.

I said that I was buying a new flash drive (Kingston Micro) as my CoreMicro drive had died. The manager said that I should being my old CoreMicro drive back for a refund.

So here is my question. If everyone at the Staples retail stores knows that these drives are so horrible, why are they still for sale? These things are just a customer service problem waiting to happen.

Anyone would be foolish to have only a single copy of their data. I know that at times I get busy and it may be a day or so before I manage to get my flash drive synced with my computers. (I maintain at least two sync copies of my important data and store one off-site.) But a retailer selling a product with this horrible level of reliability is risking a lot of very unhappy customers. (Some of whom may even write about it.)

Honest, we're still in business

Sign at The Keg, Kelowna

Last week I saw this sign on the front of the building that houses The Keg in Kelowna.

So, is the business closing down? Is the rest of the maintenance as bad. Should I be concerned that the refrigerator is not working? Have the floors been cleaned? Are the dishes being washed properly? Has the kitchen been checked to rodent infestation?

Or is the sign outside the buiding, the first thng that customers see, the only place where the restaurant is letting standards slip?

Is things appear to be falling apart outside, why would I think that things are any different inside? Consumers notice these things and act accordingly

Sell one, give away the other two. Then sell all three.

Clinique postcard from Sears

Clinique postcard from Sears

King Gillette made his fortune in the razor business from a simple premise; give away the handle and sell the blades. Clinique's business model does not include a handle, but I can see what the firm is trying to achieve.

I've been a loyal user of Clinique products for over 30 years. I use the "dramatically different moisturizing lotion" twice a day. I've tried the soap and clarifying lotion, but the habit has never stick the way the moisturizing habit has.

I can see the advantage of this promotion. People who have bought into part of the "3-Step" skin care system may be predisposed to try the other two steps. And if they try the other steps they may like them and become a regular loyal customer.

It has been observed many times that if I am a loyal customer it is much easier to keep me that try to rustle up a new customer.

Did you mean "Poly Pocket" or Polly Pocket"?

Oxford Tab Dividers with "Poly Pocket"

Polly Pocket Logo (Source: http://www.pollypocket.com)

Polly Pocket Set (Source: http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/the80sareback/files/2010/08/polly-pocket.jpeg)

Is this a trademark infringement? I wonder if Mattel has licensed the Polly Pocket name for stationary products? It would be a great fit. School-age girls and stationary are pretty much an ideal fit.

Or perhaps I'm just being my usual pedantic self. Can't imagine what brought that on.

We sell the brand, we just don't use it

Parts van for Jim Pattison Toyota Downtown, Vancouver

Last week I was walking in a small shopping centre in Kelowna and notice an owner standing outside his store. It was a shoe store and I saw that his shoes needed a polish. I brought this example to mind.

Last year one of my regular haunts was Caffe Musette in Vancouver. (http://mba4rent.blogspot.ca/2012/05/coffee-and-cycling-is-there-better.html) This cafe is located in an alley next to a Toyota dealership.

I was fascinated to discover that the parts van used by the dealership was not a Toyota, or even a Hino (Toyota's commercial vehicle brand) It is a Dodge.

Why would a Toyota dealership not use a Toyota vehicle? This does not send a very positive message about the confidence the dealership has in the brand. It also reflects a basic lack of understanding about the power of brands and more importantly brands in use. 

How big is the market?

Trilingual Packaging on Oxford Tab Dividers

I picked up a set of these at work to organize the information on each of the courses I'm teaching this semester. I know, nothing out of the ordinary here.

However, I do find it interesting that the packaging includes three languages; English, French and Spanish. English and French are mandatory for the Canadian market, and with NAFTA we are seeing more products that also have labelling in Spanish, in theory for the Mexican market.

But is that really the purpose? I would propose another reason. I think that Spanish is included for the HUGE Hispanic market in the US.

The anti-immigration folks in the US get their knickers in a twist about the number of people who speak little of no English. And any efforts to cater to the Spanish-speaking population are deemed to be unpatriotic. So, if you can say that you are including Spanish for your customers in Mexico you are in the clear. The fact that the vast majority of your Spanish-speaking customers are in the United States is just an inconvenient truth.

Limited Edition Junk

Box from Vachon's "Red Velvet Log"

The first ingredient is icing sugar, the second is sugar, and the third is vegetable oil. Is there anything about this that is remotely healthy?

And how, in any meaningful way, is this a limited edition?

The ingredients are basically a catalogue of everything that is horrendously bad for you, but the baker tried to dress it up as a "limited edition" to make it more attractive.

Well, I'm not falling for that again. Serves me right for not reading the ingredients.

You know you've made it

Advertisement on the back cover of The New Yorker, December 15, 2008

I've never read Pushkin, but this ad caught my eye. His novel in verse, "Eugene Onegin", was published in serial form between 1825 and 1832.

The fact that the Bregeut brand name was so iconic that Pushkin could use it without having to remind his readers that it was a brand of watch is telling. But Pushkin is not the only author who has referred to the brand in their writing. Stendhal, Mérimée, Balzac, Alexandre Dumas, Thackeray and Victor Hugo have all included references to the brand in their books.

Of course the flip side of this level of reputation is that the brand could become a generic term for the category, as Hoover has for vacuum cleaners in the United Kingdom.

But given the price range of Breguet watches and the age of the brand, I don't think that anyone will be using the brand name quite that loosely any time soon.

Stick with real LEGO

Best-Lock Toy box

I saw a few boxes from this company at Winners (TJ Maxx in the United States) at Christmas. My daughter received this 80-piece kit from her grandmother.

I have one thing to say. It's rubbish. "Works with other brands" is an outrageous stretch.

By "other brands" Best-Lock means LEGO. And while the precision standards for LEGO blocks are amazingly good, this kit would barely go together. (And would not stay together.)

So, while Best-Lock may say that this kit, "Works with other brands", I don't think that anyone would say that it works particularly well.

Stick with real LEGO. It is still the best.

Toss this!

2005 BC Highland Games (Outdoor advertising on a utility pole)

People can do some rather creative advertising using utility poles.This one from 2005 is for the BC Highland Games. It appears to show a rather burly man in a kilt tossing the caber.

I think this is great. Take something that I know and recognize, the utility pole, and make me look at it in a new way. Brilliant.

Facebook does not get it

Two ads on my Facebook Scrabble page (February 4, 2013)

Facebook does not get it. The "sponsored" advertising on my page makes no sense at all. If I'm a keen cyclist, three of ads are cycling related, then why am I a candidate for gastric bypass?

Gastric bypass is usually the last resort for the obese. Cyclists tend to be thin and fit. Cycling clothing, from the likes of Sugoi, does not come in sizes to fit people who would be likely candidates for gastric bypass.

This appallingly bad targeting should tell any firm planning to advertise on the site that Facebook does not have any reasonable idea about either who is on the site, or what they might find interesting.

Recognize that shape?

20070201 - 24 Hours

It must be one of the best known shapes in the world. And since its completion in 1973, the Sydney Opera House has been heralded as one of the most beautiful, and certainly one of the most distinctive, buildings in the world. Designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, the building took 14 years to complete coming in at 10 times over the original budget and taking four times longer than the original project estimate.

Yet, despite the controversy, or perhaps because of it, the building has become one of the iconic Australian images. So a perfect fit for OPI's range of Austraian influenced shades of nail polish.

In 2007 the building was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. Just another reason to have a look in person.

Why doesn't Oracle like Google?

Install screen for Java update

This afternoon I was told that I had to update Java. Yes, my computer is one of the 3 billion devices worldwide that runs Java.

So, why does Oracle recommend that I install the "Browser Add-on from Ask" and make "Ask my default search provider"?

According to the rankings on Alexa.com, Ask.com is 24th in web traffic in the USA and 50th in web traffic worldwide. Do any other search engines get more hits?

In worldwide web traffic Google is number 1 (Google.com), number 14 (Google.in), number 19 (Google.co.jp), number 23 (Google.de), number 24 (Google.com.hk), number 26 (Google.co.uk), and number 27 (Google.fr).

So why does Oracle recommend what is obviously people's second or third choice? Is Google that much of a threat to Oracle? That must be the perception at Oracle HQ.

But does Oracle serious think that people will try and like Ask? I tried AskJeeves.com about 15 years ago and it was interesting, but not really competition for the quality of Google, and today it is even less competition.