Monday, April 21, 2008

How $5 Can Kill A $100 Million Ad Campaign!

The new $5 bill is pretty cool…its got some great graphics and color too.

For so long the US treasury printed its currency in monochromatic versions of green. Sometimes people see things in monochromatic hues.

The $5 dollar bill is quickly replacing our $1 bill.

Think about it.

A Starbucks Venti Cappuccino costs about $5.

A McDonald’s Big Mac combo meal costs about $5.

Dry cleaning a sports blazer costs about $5.

And before summer’s end, a gallon of gas may eat up most of $5.

This past week, BrandVenture experienced an interesting conflict over $5… and it wasn’t with a client, or the media, or a database fielding company.

No… the conflict was with our bank.

You see our bank is one of the BIG BANK BRANDS out there that spends a lot of money on its brand message.

Our bank is Wachoiva. You might have heard or seen their commercials…they claim to be the top bank when it comes to customer service.

Mullen/LHC is their ad agency. They have produced some nice ads with nice music, nice pictures, nice voice-over and nice copy.

The conflict?

Terry Sagedy, a partner with BrandVenture went to cash a check for compensation for focus group participants. And because Terry doesn’t have a personal account with Wachovia, the teller charged $5 to cash the check.

Our company has been with Wachovia now for about three years. We have a very healthy balance in our checking account and also use Wachovia for our corporate charge accounts. We have a credit line with the bank and also some short-term CDs.

Terry has a corporate charge card from Wachovia…but because he doesn’t have a personal account, Wachovia uses it as an excuse to increase its revenue flow from BrandVenture.

I called Wachovia’s customer service for small business 1-800-Number and was informed that “the charge is just part of the bank’s company policy.”

When I asked for justification of the charge, the Wachovia customer service person referred me back to the branch office.

When I called to speak to the brand manager, I was informed that he was in a staff meeting and that he would call back as soon as it was over. I called to speak with him at 10:30am on Wednesday morning. He called me back at 5:00pm while I was moderating one of the groups.

Must have been one heck of a staff meeting.

In his message, he told me that he wanted to “discuss the situation.” No mention made of refunding the $5.

I called him back and left a message on Thursday morning. Still haven’t received any return call.

It’s Sunday night. Figured that if my staff meeting took that long, I might need a couple days of rest as well.

Interesting comparative.

Tonight, I went out to dinner with a couple of my friends. We went to a restaurant where we could sit out on a patio.

Because it was one of those “San Diego days” here in Atlanta, there were lot’s of people sitting out in the sun and enjoying good drinks and good food. Unfortunately, the number of folks there got both the wait staff and the kitchen rather goofed up.

Our dinners were delayed and when they arrived they were cold.

When we voiced our complaint to the waiter, the manager immediately came to the table and gave us our entire meal – drinks and all – compliments of the house.

The meal and drinks probably totaled around $50.

If we went to that restaurant once a week, 52 weeks a year, the total amount would represent a single digit percentage of what we represent as a customer to Wachovia.

Making nice ads that look good and sound good is something that drives ad agency revenue.

It’s too bad that not many ad agencies demand that clients deliver what they claim.

It's too bad that the Wachovia brand office can't simply call back and say, "You are right and your company is a very valuable customer of our bank. We should not have charged $5 for cashing that check. We have returned the $5 back into your account. Here is my name, please call me if you have any questions or concerns in the future."

Notice that I did not include the phrase, "I'm Sorry."

I not only respect the manager of that restaurant, but in doing what he did, he earned my commitment to come back.

As far as Wachovia is concerned, I think we may be shopping for another bank…and I promise that it will not be another BIG BANK BRAND spending a lot of money with its ad agency!

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