Sad but true: some industries just suck
I just read through yet another brilliant post on BrandCultureTalk, one of my favorite industry blogs. First off, I like that the post makes use of the words “shenanigans,” “confiscatory,” and “sophistry” (which I admit I had to look up). But beyond a perfect score on the verbal SATs, the author of this post clearly has a knack for dissecting a complex issue (in this case, the ailments of the credit card industry), doing research to support his/her points of view, and stringing together an engaging article that manages to be relevant without being trite (a bit of a rarity in articles about branding/marketing).
The post is essentially a diatribe on the frustrating attributes of the First PREMIER Bank Platinum MasterCard and the credit card industry as a whole. Which brings me to the title of this post: some industries just suck.
Who hasn’t had a frustrating or confusing experience with a credit card company—mysterious fees, or seemingly impossible-to-redeem “points”? The bar is set so low that all it takes to have a “positive experience” with a credit card is the absence of any negative experiences. For the most part, the same is true for airlines and telecom providers. I’m reminded of a great description of AT&T’s “Fewest Dropped Calls” ad campaign—that basically the ads claim “we suck less.” (Unfortunately, I can’t remember who said it, and in the end, AT&T had to drop the claim, because it wasn’t even true.)
To contribute my own horror story, I recently set up Verizon FiOS at home. The installation takes 4+ hours and technicians are only available from 9 to 5 on weekdays. Did it occur to anyone that this might be inconvenient? Now the bills are coming, and every month it’s a different amount. First we have the initiation fees, which are conveniently spread over 3 months, then there’s the promo pricing that expires after 6 months, and so on. And it’s not just Verizon. This is an industry that sucks.
How do these industries disintegrate into such a mess? My guess is that one source of the complexity is desperation. Hyper-competitiveness drives companies to tweak products and bolt on deal sweeteners, eventually leading to a soup of a marketplace where everyone’s offering is so confusing that it’s hard to tell what you’re paying, much less what you’re getting. In an effort to raise the bar on value, these companies lead their industries to implode in terms of clarity and convenience.
From a marketing and strategy perspective, industries like this are ripe for someone to come in and make sense of it all for the consumer. Southwest and JetBlue are giving it a go in the airline industry with some success. But so far, if I’m looking to switch cable providers, sign up for a new cell phone plan, or get a new credit card, I’ll just have to be prepared for the experience to suck.
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I’m laughing — (out loud) — “We suck less”…!
The new slightly-higher-than-low brand position!
BTW, another source of the complexity is greed. It’s a known fact confused herds spend more on more things when stressed and confused. All part of the shock and ‘gotcha-capitalisms so well researched and reported on by Naomi Klein and Bob Sullivan (http://www.gotchacapitalism.com ).
I think the many disaterous, greedy, sucky bastards on the loose for the last ten+ years has in fact opened up possibilities for new ways and means.
Nothing like cultural yin + yang to support branding and re-branding innnovations.