Brand Loyalty?

Back in the good ole' days (I wasn't around yet), there was a such thing as "brand loyalty".

I am an account executive for New Horizons Computer Learning Center. We are the world leader in computer training, period. Whether it's high end technical training or desktop applications. (we also have outstanding business and project management courses/instructors, but that's another story) I have a good friend who has a similar position with UPS. Top of the line right? The problem is people are sacrificing quality for price because of the economy. Quinn, who works for UPS put it simply, "When I used to walk into my customer's door, having the name UPS behind me meant many things. Stability, quality, etc. People were willing to pay a little more because of the quality of service. Now, they want whoever is the cheapest." That is interesting. He called them "price whores" who'd go with any company because of price. Funny...

In my position, I work with businesses to provide training solutions. There is nobody who offers a better product. We have some of the world's (yes I mean world's) best instructors in our Detroit/Great Lakes market. Companies say they value training and ongoing education for their staff, but many are comfortable with being "trained" by the lowest bidder with no guarantee of satisfaction. With organizations becoming more enamored with price and less with quality, it opens the door for sub par companies to compete. Consequently, customer satisfaction is lowered.

As consumers, we don't always have the money to extra to spend on things. I think we've all been guilty of choosing quantity over quality. For example, my coworker had some Starburst Jellybeans (btw, I love jellybeans). I was thinking, "I need to go and buy some!" Well, I went to CVS to make copies of pictures...they had some jellybeans for $0.99! They didn't even have a brand name. They were like 'Jellybeans.'

The long and short of that story is I was terribly disappointed! Now I still have a taste for jellybeans, so I'm paying for them twice!

If you are a decision maker for your organization, give your people the best tools to be successful. Not the cheapest. Make your wife happy and buy the good jellybeans!