Looking Sharp
In small ways, the message that promotions need to address people’s needs beyond price is seeping out into the marketing industry.
The latest brand to try to take the worry out of buying is men’s apparel chain Jos. A. Bank Clothiers. They’re offering customers who buy a suit during their $199 sale—which lasts through April 9—the chance to keep both the suit and the cost (up to $199) if they lose their job between April 16 and July 1 of this year. Find the fine print here.
As with the Hyundai Assurance policy, in force since January and recently beefed up, and with JetBlue’s new Promise Program, Bank’s “Risk-Free Suit” policy addresses not just customers’ present worries but their fears about the future.
While plenty of shoppers are concerned that their current budgets won’t stretch to afford a new car, a trip or even a new suit, that’s not all that’s keeping those wallets closed. Even those who could make those purchases today are dealing with an overlay of insecurity about the future. After all, if Bear Stearns or Washington Mutual could disappear in the space of a news cycle, so could their employer, right?
Programs like this offer at least the hope that if the economic thunderbolt does strike, a consumer won’t be left mired in debt for both the car in his garage and the suit on his back. Pre-emptive buyer’s remorse, if you like.
Expect to see more unemployment-forgiveness programs like this if job losses don’t turn around. They’re a way of sharing the burden many consumers are now under: the burden of worry.
One note, though: Any marketer who implements a policy like that at Jos. A. Bank, or Hyundai, or JetBlue, had better set all the conditions they require first, explain them clearly and uncomplicatedly to buyers, and then live up to them scrupulously. I mean, even if it means serving dog food in the company cafeteria.
Because for all the good media exposure you get for introducing these good Samaritan programs (and guys, we know that’s not your first consideration, but it’s not your least either), the brimstone that will rain down on you from customers who think they’ve been lied to will not be worth that early PR bump.
If you think one angry customer with a blog or a Facebook page is troublesome, try an angry unemployed one. They’ve got lots of time, and there’s plenty of free WiFi and broadband out there.
