Reputation is not built on fine print

Banking behemoth State Bank of India (SBI) is causing quite a stir in the home loan market with its 8% fixed rate product. New applicants are being offered home loans at 8% for a year.

Now SBI's ads are not exactly Cannes material (as you can see in the pic here) but one thing that stands out is the clarity with which the offer is presented without resorting to sneaky fine print. There is no attempt to hide the condition that the rate will be reset after a year.

When you've got a product like this, it's quite tempting to trumpet the big promise and shove the caveats under the carpet. Kudos to SBI for resisting the temptation. Being honest and upfront is key in Marcom, especially when you're looking to sign up customers for the long term. Is it a surprise then that SBI features among the world's 50 most reputed firms?

Maximum bang for the billboard

What message do you put up on a billboard above your storefront? Your toll-free no.? A clever line? Your web address?

NakedPizza--a pizza joint in New Orleans--thought different, reports TechCrunch.

Standing out has never been easier

Look around. Almost everybody is overpromising and underdelivering. The fine print mousetrap lurks in every corner. You have pricing designed to trick your brain (just Rs 799, for instance). Whenever customers are required to enter into long-term contracts, they almost always end up getting a raw deal after they sign up.

This is an unprecedented opportunity for brands that want to stand out.

Here's how:

• Tell great stories. And then go ahead and overdeliver.
  
• Do not make promises that come with strings attached.
  
• If you've made a promise, keep it.
  
• Keep existing customers happy. Word of mouth is more important than it ever was.
  
• Be transparent. Say no to trickery. Sometimes, it's too hard to resist the lure, but stand your ground.
  
• Appreciate the power of understatement. If you have a salience, live it. You may choose to convey it subtly but don't shout about it. An honest man who says "I'm honest" all the time is sure to invite some doubts. Positive inferences drawn by customers about your brand have much more impact than your headline or your punchline.
  

These can always help a brand win, but more so in today's environment.

I don't have an Inbox!

For 12 years, I've been logging into my Hotmail account almost every day. When I tried logging in this morning, I got this immensely friendly and helpful message thrown at me.

Give me a break. If you are making things inconvenient for me, at least tell me why you are doing it and help me tide over the inconvenience.

How would the old geeks at Redmond feel if they turned up for work one morning and found this message at their workstations:
You never worked here. If you need a job, go to Cupertino. The coffee there tastes the same.

Update (11 April, 2009): The incorrect message was caused by a networking issue, says the Windows Live team.

Seth Godin offers boring advice

Seth Godin urges Marketers to find a handful people (he actually says ten people) who trust, need, respect and listen to you.

A question we Marcom professionals need to ask ourselves is, "Do we have a communication strategy specifically for these few?"

Seth signs off by saying, "Three years from now, this advice will be so common as to be boring. Today, it's almost certainly the opposite of what you're doing."

Read Seth's post here.

Creative slowdown

Slowdown is surely taking its toll on creativity, among other things. After the funny Finnair ad that I recently wrote about, it's now the turn of Singapore Airlines to get absurdly literal.

Making your customer smile

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant has turned the safety announcement rigmarole into an entertaining performance. When a service makes the customer smile, the brand checks into a cosy room in the consumer's mind.

Hat tip: John O'Leary