it's your brand, stupid!

We buy the majority of our office supplies from a national, big-box office supply chain. Sure, they have a great name and a clever logotype. They have an extremely comprehensive and user-friendly web site– and almost all the office supply products you will ever need!

Because we are a loyal customer, we receive free next day shipping, monthly ‘check-ins’ from our designated customer service rep, and two or three e-mails a week.

We have tried other office supply retailers, but still prefer this company over their competition. When we run out of ink, paper, post-it notes or our toner runs low – a mid-day telephone call or web site visit, almost guarantees a delivery during the next business day. We, as a customer, have an affinity for this brand.

On a regular basis, their promotional e-mails offer a FREE GIFT with purchase. This is a nice little loyalty perk that used to attract our attention from time to time – perhaps causing us to order a little extra – in order to meet the offer’s minimal dollar amount.

I am not sure whether it was cheesy ‘pleatherette’ tote bag, the hideous harvest gold soup bowls, or the cheap plastic briefcase filled with junky tools (passing itself off as a roadside safety kit). Our FREE GIFTS were nothing but off-brand, sleazy knock-offs– JUNK!

Sure they could be recycled but in to what bin do you throw them? Fortunately, our town dump has a ‘boutique’ for just this purpose – “I should throw it away? But where? I’ll just put it on a shelf in the boutique and someone will be bound to find a use for it.”

I occasionally drop by the boutique to visit my harvest gold soup crockery but it has become blatantly obvious this FREE GIFT is not attracting any attention– even though it can be picked up and driven away for FREE!

Ultimately, rather than becoming more loyal and in-tune with my office supply store’s brand– I now have question regarding the brand’s integrity. After all, your brand is judged by the ‘company that it keeps’ and ‘junk is junk is junk’.