The Story

So the funniest thing happened during my last lunch outing to New Seasons. As I received my almost-daily sustenance of roast beef and swiss on whole wheat, I noticed that the edible goodness that was presented before me was not what I had scribbled hungrily on the order form.

What my aching stomach, and fiscally concerned conscience, truly desired was a half sandwich. What I got was one whole. The puzzled look on my face (actually, it was probably more of an “I’m ticked that I have to pay for your illiterate ignorance” look) must’ve given me away, because as I nervously grabbed my heaping plate of sandwich, the person responsible for this “mishap” says “Just tell the cashier the booger who made this screwed up your order.”

Okay, cool, I thought to myself. But it wasn’t until I opened wide to take my first bite that I started thinking about the last time this happened. YES, this happened once before.

Genius. What marvelous genius, I kept repeating to myself and smiling as one who just discovered he was on the receiving end of a joke would. If you’re a company that never screws up, but you want to treat your loyal customers every now and again (and at the same time show your humanity) why not “make mistakes,” purposeful and deliberate actions, under the guise that it was all your fault? Kind of like a little company disloyalty for customer loyalty, but ending with customer loyalty again. (Still with me?)

I had no idea Sheryl Crow’s “Favorite Mistake” was inspired by a grocer. I like New Seasons too, Sheryl.

Wanna do lunch?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Kick Ass Ideas & Musings, Bank Marketing, Experiential Marketing, Branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.