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Grounded Chips, IV

posted by Eliot Frick Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 4:17 PM
in integral marketing

Matt offers an excellent suggestion about how to draw a line in the ground potato chip crumbs as it were. As he suggests, there's no particular science to deciding how long one should wait for a response from a company before you determine that they're not being entirely honest when they say they care about your questions and comments. My writing would also seem to demonstrate that I have a hard time determining when to end a sentence, but that is another matter entirely.

Taking Matt's suggestion, I shall arbitrarily decide that the Terra Chips Consumer Relations team isn't particularly interested in my comments and questions as of the day we finish the remaining chips in the bag and go buy more (perhaps other) chips. Given that half the bag of chips is now inside my vacuum, it shouldn’t be long. Given that I’m having a mild attack of diverticulitis (don’t ask), I’ll leave it up to my wife and kids to consume said chips.

What’s more, Matt has been kind enough to offer support of my chip foibles over at the Integrity Corporation blog. Given Google’s willingness to index anything and its love of all things blog, I’m not surprised to find my post comes up at the top of this search and it is the second result for this search.

I really want to give them every opportunity to respond, so I just sent them another note:

Dear Terra Chip Consumer Relations,

I really want to give y’all every opportunity to be a part of the conversation that is happening on my blog about your brand. I’ve already contacted you twice through the “contact us” form on your site. You’ve yet to respond. Which is okay I suppose. I’m not too bothered per se. But I thought you’d be interested to know that a Google search for “terra chips hard time opening” now lists my blog post as the first result and a search for “terra chips consumer relations” has my blog as the second result. So, y’know, people are reading about your brand on my blog. They’re taking note of the fact that you’re not participating in the conversation. They’re drawing conclusions.

I have every hope you’ll participate in the conversation. Certainly, you don’t have to. I wouldn’t have the temerity to demand you participate. I still like your chips. I wish you the best in determining how to respond to this. There’s also nothing wrong with asking for help. I’d be happy to offer council as to the most effective way of getting into the conversation. You’ve got my email address after all, ask away!

Cheers,
Eliot Frick

Third message in three days. There's about an eighth of the bag left. Still no response.

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comments
commenter:  Matt Jensen
posted:  Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 8:42 PM

I hear no crunching.

Shame.

commenter:  Skye
posted:  Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 11:48 AM

Check this post: ttp://www.ideasonideas.com/2008/02/blogs_can_kill_brands/

commenter:  Eliot Frick
posted:  Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 11:39 PM

Thanks for spreading the word, Skye.

commenter:  Lori
posted:  Saturday, February 23, 2008 at 12:14 AM

Maybe they think you are crazy. Or a pain in the ass that doesn't fit their brand anyway. Can you care about all the people all of the time? How bout just the sane ones?

It's been over a week, what the hell happened?!?!? Did they send you a copy of the order of protection/cease & desist? Or did you get a yummy new "ez open" bag?

Or, like the vast majority, did they ignore your pleas completely? And if so, does this disprove the squeaky wheel theory?

Commenting is open and encouraged for all except spammers, whom we intend to roll up in a carpet and throw from a bridge. Enjoy.

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