this is an interesting article (Disney’s $100,000 Salt + Pepper Shaker)

basically someone had a childhood experience where they replaced a broken salt shaker @ disneyworld, and were SO nice that this guy was a convert for life, and estimates he spent $100k on “disney stuff” over his lifetime. and now is some sort of consultant and says this to disney:

“If I sent a child into one of your stores with a broken salt and pepper shaker today, would your policies allow your workers to be kind enough to replace it?”

and they basically say ‘wtf no we are jerks now sorry’

its an interesting real-world anecdote to me, because brand affinity in general is, despite all our best efforts, touchy as hell. a tiny aspect of an experience can set you off in a positive or negative direction for life, and i think what it comes down to the most is behavior. this story is old, but its probably more relevant now what with the internet – this is an example of a brand acting a certain way in certain situations. 20yrs ago there were fewer examples of brands ‘acting’ in any particular way – coca cola didn’t really ‘act’, they made and sold soda and put out some ads. mobil gas ‘acted’ because there is a service component. disney ‘acted’ because they have theme parks. now, online, anyone doing any marketing of any sort is opening up a dialog online, and needs to think about their actions, and that sometimes the tiny things make a big difference. be nice ? it helps, probably more than ever.