Category Archives: Market Communication Gap

Lance Armstrong, Market Communication Gap, matt Corby, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence, Service Gaps, skepticism, Subway

Will Lance Armstrong’s Admissions Heighten Consumer Skepticism

Watching the Lance Armstrong interview I couldn’t help but think of the classic saying, “If it seems too good to be true it probably is.” This also caused me to consider how often ‘sayings’ seem to be accurate. Maybe it is because sayings arise from collective wisdom over time.

It is this idea of collective wisdom that then caused me to wonder about the ripple effect of Lance’s admissions. Will consumers become more skeptical of corporate behaviours?

This morning I noticed this article in The Age Newspaper, Subway, where a foot is a step back.

Matt Corby’s 11 inch ‘footlong’ sub. Photo: Facebook

Perth teenager Matt Corby posted a photo of his ‘foot-long’ sub on Subway’s Facebook page. It clearly indicated that his sub was only 11 inches long.  That’s 91.67% of a 12 inch sub. Imagine if you only received 91.67% of most things that you buy. Collective wisdom suggests to me that most people expect a Footlong Sub to be pretty close to 12 inches long. I don’t know about you but I’ve always thought that a foot long sub meant that it was supposed to be 12 inches long. Given they also have a ‘Six Inch Sub’ this perception is reinforced by other items on their menu.

I quite like Subway and this article isn’t about them. Rather, it’s about their response and what it represents to consumers. This is what Subway Australia posted on Facebook in response to Matt’s photo.

“With regards to the size of the bread and calling it a footlong, ‘Subway Footlong’ is a registered trademark as a descriptive name for the sub sold in Subway restaurants and not intended to be a measurement of length.”


Hopefully Matt’s sub is an aberration. But what if it isn’t? Personally I’m not going to pull out a measuring tape every time I buy a sub and if I really think about it, ‘nearly 12 inches’ would be good enough. But 11 inches is not good enough. Skeptically do you think that people will be posting images of 13 inch subs? I don’t think so. (Hmmm some skepticism slipping in there…)
Which brings me to my point. The Lance Armstrong admission is going to make consumers more skeptical of what they are being sold and the intentions of organisations. It will also make them more skeptical of the responses that organisations provide, such as the response provided above from Subway. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out that if your product is only 91.67% of the size that the market expects, but you are ‘getting away‘ with selling it at the smaller size then your cost savings go straight to your bottom line. People aren’t stupid. They can work these things out and social media makes it easy for them to provide this feedback.
The problem that Subway may have is that their Footlong Subs may in fact only be 11 inches long. In other words, over time their system may have been changed so that is what they produce. Despite the name being ‘Footlong’ they may have created a system that creates a gap between what they are marketing and what they are actually saying. These decisions may have been made a long time ago with the benefits of those changes going to Subway and not their consumers. No doubt many organisations have made similar decisions – but these decision create a Market Communication Gap. What the market perceives they are going to get is different to what it actually gets. Ultimately this creates poor service.

What are your thoughts? Will Lance Armstrong’s admissions drive consumer skepticism and what does this mean for organisations?
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Customer Service, Employability Skills, Leadership, Market Communication Gap, marketing, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence, Tagline, Tuppy's Riverside Convenience Store

A genuinely great service experience!

If you travel a lot for business or pleasure you may be able to relate to that annoying feeling that you have forgotten something important, only to have it dawn on you as your plane is about to land at your destination that you have forgotten your phone charger (again!!!).

As your brain scans quickly for solutions you scamper off the plane only to discover that the airport is effectively in shut down. It is, after all after 8.30pm and you are in Australia. So the opportunity to purchase a charger isn’t going to present itself to you at the airport.

Catching a taxi to your destination you ask the driver if, by any chance does he have the same phone charger that you require? “Sorry, I don’t have that type of phone”, is the reply.

“Damn!”, you think yo yourself.

“I’m up here for two full days and my phone won’t last that long. It’ll be lucky to see the morning. Oh well, maybe I’ll get lucky at the local corner store.”

If you’re wondering why I haven’t suggested that you check if reception has a spare charger I need to explain that the particular hotel in which you are staying doesn’t have a reception service after 7:30pm, so you have accessed the key to your room via a secure key lock.

You look at your clock and notice that it is nearly 9pm. What are the chances that the local convenience store will still be open? “Hmmm, I might be able to make it it if I’m fast”, you think to yourself.

So you quickly race down the stairs and walk to the corner store that you discovered on your last visit. It’s still open, but they are bringing all the signs inside in preparation for closing. You pick up a few things for breakfast in the morning and search around for a phone charger, all the while thinking that it is a ‘long shot’.

You get to the the counter and say, “I’m not expecting your answer to be yes, but it can’t hurt to ask. Do you sell iPhone chargers?”

“No we don’t.” comes the reply.

 “But I can lend you mine if you like?”

 “Are you serious” I said, I mean you say (yes if you hadn’t guessed this whole story is about a real experience that I have just had!).

 “Yes I am serious. You are obviously away on business and I guess you would really need your phone. I have two phone chargers so you can borrow this one.”

What a wonderful gesture. I had never before met Andrew from Tuppy’s Riverside Convenience Store, (85 Deakin Street, Kangaroo Point Queensland Australia, just down beside the Storey Bridge) yet he was willing to help me out, for no other reason than he could. What was also wonderful about his gesture is that it was made both genuinely and purely. He made the offer with no expectations of me doing anything in return (except of course to return his charger.).

Great service experiences are characterised by little things. In that moment when Andrew heard my question, his response was to a fellow human being in need. Wow that made me feel good.

I explained to him that I write a lot and asked if it was okay for me to write about this experience and he gave me his permission. So if you are ever in Brisbane, check out Tuppy’s Riverside Convenience Store, I’ll certainly be going back – and that’s a promise!

By the way the ‘tagline’ on its simple brochure says, “More than a convenience store!“. Well, unlike many taglines out there, I can say that my experience of this one is that it is an accurate expression of the experience that you will have a Tuppy’s Riverside Convenience Store.

Thank you Andrew for providing a simple, yet genuinely great service experience for me. I genuinely appreciate it.

What are your genuine service experiences?


How do you bring genuine service experiences into the work that you do?


And finally, how do you bring your ‘tagline’ to life, just like Andrew did?

Visit here for information on how you can bring the OTM Service Strategy to life inside your organisation.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Customer Service, Market Communication Gap, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence

What promises are on your corporate website?

Recently when working with people in the areas of management development and/or service excellence, I have been surprised by how many employees know very little about what is on their company website.
Upon discovering this issue I then ask the staff members if they have ever had situations where clients have referred to something that they had read or viewed on their website that the staff member didn’t know about.
Nearly everyone has said that they had experienced such a situation.

When I then ask who they believe is responsible for ensuring that they (the employees) know what is on the website, they reply, “Senior Management” or “The Marketing Department”.

Very few people say, “Me!”.

In reality it is a two way street. Senior managers and marketers should communicate with staff regarding what is being communicated via the corporate website. Staff should also take personal responsibility for knowing what is being communicated. In this way the Market – Communication Gap can be minimised or eliminated.

What is your experience of this issue?

Find out about the OTM Service Strategy to help you to close your market – Communication Gap.

Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com