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Sunday, March 28, 2010

Undercover is the new...



Undercover Boss being my new favorite reality series, I have to ask one question though: Did only middle-aged white male CEOs answer the craigslist on this one, or is that only who the producers approached? (You know, for that unique cross-promotional brand integration opportunity.) Regardless, the show only works with large corporations, where not knowing who your salespeople in the field are is believable. Would I want to expose my company’s potential troubles publicly like that however? Not sure. On one hand, it’s risky and flies in the face of pretty ad campaigns saying how great a brand is. On the other, it can show people who don’t believe ad hype that you’re serious about addressing the issues they see on a daily basis, from poor customer service to inferior product quality. Scaling the concept down, a small company couldn’t do this because employees likely know the CEO. But, customers might not, so why not go out and actually pretend to be a customer yourself and listen to what *other* customers say.

1 comment:

RFB said...

I've enjoyed these as well - except for the one featuring the CEO of White Castle, Dave Rife, who came across as an arrogant douche who inherited the company and loves himself beyond measure.