Dear Budget-Train Clue Rental

As a blogger, I couldn't help noticing your new marketing campaign. But I write now as a customer, not as a blogger (nor even as a marketing consultant as any other customer would basically say the same stuff).

I speak as a single customer. In the past year, I've rented cars for a total of approximately five weeks over six occasions. And each time, I've used a comparison engine to shop for the lowest price. Sometimes that shopping engine roulette would turn up Budget, but this year, it mostly wasn't Budget. It's not as if I haven't heard of Budget.

The major reason why word-of-mouth hasn’t taken off is not because marketers lack the metrics to measure it. It’s because most products, services, and businesses simply aren’t worth talking about. - "Measuring Word-of-Mouth", John Moore, Brand Autopsy

In that quote, Moore riffs off AdWeek's Oct 24th Psst! How Do You Measure Buzz? article. Buzz. “Buzz is a long-term learning model,” reminds Alex Wipperfurth in his book Brand Hijack. In contrast, he says, hype is about short-term awareness; it’s publicity.

I have a time budget. I've no time for contests. Yet give out $160,000 to the most disruptive ideas - from employees or customers - who cares where the best ideas come from? - and I'd been intrigued to participate in investing in my own future customer experience. Why not incent us to come up with reasons so that a mere $3/day or $5/day or $15/day difference won't make us fickle? (You know you're a commodity when I have to look for the rental agreement jacket to remember which agency to return the car to at the airport.)

Craigslist has done precisely what a free market enterprise is envisioned to do ... And contrary to every business school admonition, they have done this without thinking about and planning around their competitors. Instead they engaged the customer in dialogue and participation in the use of their service and acted in accordance with what they wanted. - "I Believe Craigslist Ate Your Baby", Eddy sez blog

It's self-evident that I like, trust and read blogs, but I ain't changing my rental car buying behavior one iota. Next time I'm going right back to the comparison engine, 100% blog campaign or no.

Ah... but give me a remarkable distinguishable service and experience, and then you're conversing.

Thanks for listening!

p.s. You don't need my advice. You have an untapped gold mine in your customers & employees collectively. Just ask.

Pssst...What's next? Using blogs as a long-term learning model - check out the other side of the influence coin (be influence-able) - to build a better product, rather than simply better publicity.

UPDATE: Chris Carfi (#1 in his Social Customer Manifesto is "Customers want to  have a say") offers Budget his two cents by looking at two customer touch points - reservation time, and when one gets in the car. Great comments on expressing the non-express lines in Chris' post by Tino too.  License to Roam observes that the Hunters' Stories page is busier (engaging users) than the official  contest blog. Rachel says: "Something like this brings Budget first to mind if I'm searching. But it won't be first choice if the costs aren't comparable." (Precisely.) Johnnie Moore adds: "I suspect Budget will be reading these voices and it will learn something."

On a related note Tom Asacker reminds (you can delete personal and it still applies to corporations): "Most people get this "personal brand" thing all wrong. They think that awareness equals a strong brand."

And also related from Michael Pollock: Fellow blogger John Moore (Brand Autopsy) uttered some of the most simple but brilliant words I think I've ever heard that relate to branding: 

"Starbucks never sought to create a brand. The company was too busy being a business than trying to be a brand.

"Starbucks was too busy building a viable and profitable business to think about something as seemingly trivial as branding. Starbucks was too busy sourcing and roasting the highest-quality coffee beans to think about branding. Starbucks was too busy educating customers on how and why they should appreciate a stronger, bolder cup, more flavorful cup of coffee to think about branding. Starbucks was too busy creating a comforting and welcoming place for people to exhale to think about branding.

"And because Starbucks was busy working on and working in the business, they built a business, of which, the by-product was the creation of a strong brand."

UPDATE 2: Insightful follow-up post at SeattleDuck: "Yes, the scavenger hunt may involve driving around to find clues, but if the point was to tie back to Budget’s brand identity and advertising themes, I think you missed." Kevin Briody further suggests:

Show your voice - get some employees or executives out there blogging about what makes Budget unique. Don’t filter it. Encourage them to share good, bad, ugly stories from the local branches. Make budget stand for something beyond Yet Another Rental Place. We will trust you more, and may trust you more with our business.

Involve the local branches in the competition - UpYourBudget has some great action going on in cities across the country, places where you no doubt have Budget locations. Why not tie them in somehow - get the employees out there interacting with the scavengers? Make your cars a part of the hunt. Just tie it back to Budget in a clear and meaningful way.

tags social media cluetrain word of mouth wom customer evangelism citizen marketing blogging buzz marketing product management

Comments

[Jack]

Just rented from budget rent a car in maui. I recieved a conformation number for the van we rented and the cost of renting it. It was a few dollars less than Avis rent a car. When we went to pick it up they charged us twice what we were quoted. They said it would be discounted when we dropped it off. We tried to return it 2 days prior and they said it would be the same amount. When we dropped it of they charged us over twice the going rate for maui and will not help us. We are proceding with state and legal for the fraud they did. We hope people will see this, and see what Budget is doing.

[Don]

Although, it seems like an interesting way to get people to visit your blog. Could this be done on a much smaller scale to draw web traffic to a blog. Maybe the scavenger blog is the next reality TV.