Just last semester, our Industrial and Complex Organizations class had a sudden farewell party of some sort as the semester drew to a close. Our professor, Dr. Wilfredo Arce, ordered for delivery an 18″ Four Seasons Yellow Cab pizza and a 1.5 L Coke whereas one of our classmates brought in a half-gallon Cookies and Cream Selecta ice cream and a whole Red Ribbon Chocolate Mousse. Given the randomness of the entire thing, we almost did not have anything to eat with — no plates, no knives, no spoons, no forks, no nothing! As such, we scampered everywhere just to have the basic stuff we needed, only to end up with a few plastic spoons.
In this light, we knew that what we could eat from the entire lot would only be the pizza given the fact that it didn’t require much for consumption. But, that fact alone did not hinder Yellow Cab to throw in a few extras just to pamper their consumers. I’m not merely talking about the sachets of dried chilli pepper and chilli sauce (which, I say, is worth appreciating altogether because I do not eat my pizzas without a little of both), but the other things you never knew would come handy. I’m referring to that ubiquitous pizza topper which prevents the pizza cardboard from sticking to the pizza which doubles as a pizza slicer once the tripod legs are removed (which, for us, functioned also as an ice cream scoop and a cake slicer). Not only that, I’m also referring to those little plastic cups which Yellow Cab throws in with the Coke everytime you have it delivered (which, for us, doubled as a makeshift bowl for our ice cream and cake).
What would we have done without that little pizza topper and those little plastic cups? The answer would have been nasty for a hungry class compared to the memorable time we actually had. Now, think of it this way: as a product or service provider, what would you have preferred to bring into the table — a brand experience worth recounting or an ice cream melting to nonconsumability?
It is those little extras that define the totality of your consumer’s experience. Be it in simply providing those little napkins or those little plastic cups, or pouring time, money, and effort over redesigning the common pizza topper to serve more than it’s supposed to, it all adds up to the core message which your company might be sending (intentionally or unintentionally) to your market. Whatever that message might be contributes so much to your brand that the actual product itself might actually depend on it.
Take, for example, that book you did not purchase just because the cover seemed like any other cover from those other books that you felt shying away from. Or that website you did not even scan just because the layout seemed like any other layout from those other websites that you felt contained nothing. It is those little details that most marketers tend to overlook that matter so much that paying little attention to it causes the extreme downfall for the brand even way before it gets tested.
Of course, your ice cream or your cake might have worked a few years back, and you know well enough that consumers have the right utensils to actually consume your product. Your consumers have knives to slice your cake or at least spoons to scoop your ice cream. But, knowing well enough that their sturdy cardboard would not sag under its weight did not stop Yellow Cab from providing a pizza topper to prevent a cardboard pizza disaster. Knowing well enough that (1) they have already sliced the pizza for their consumers and (2) their consumers could have knives with them did not stop Yellow Cab from providing a pizza slicer.
Why? Because of the two things they actually do know:
- They know that they do not know well enough.
- They know service meant going for the extra mile.
Perhaps, its time for Selecta and Red Ribbon to assume that people could potentially say yes when asked:
Would you like fries with that?
