The inexact science of Brand Loyalty

Be sure to LIKE us on FaceBook.On the way out the door...after a massive teeth cleaning, my dental hygienist shouted "don't forget to like us on facebook".  The kid I knew at camp in the 70's, who used to wet his bed  sent a nasty gram asking "why don't you follow me on twitter?"  The local pharmacy keeps sending e-mails urging me to "join the conversation".  Really? The conversation about what?...my prescriptions?, adult diapers?, penny candy?   Everybody wants to connect these days, everybody wants to build an engaged and loyal social network.  AspenSpin is fully ensconced in the world of BRAND LOYALTY.  But what's the end game?  Really?

Press One for English.Brand loyalty is a funny thing.  AspenSpin is super loyal to some brands, and willing to throw others under the bus.  Call me crazy, but we will lend support to the brands we actually use and like.  We use social media to converse with, and even promote some brands who in our opinion have superior products and services and are totally relevant to us.   Have you ever shopped at Nordstrom?  They built their department store brand (since 1901) on superior customer service.  The sales staff is so helpful and attentive that we actually feel guilty leaving the store without making a purchase.  Sports Illustrated is another brand we love, we haven't missed an issue since 1968 and we're happy to "like" them on FB.

At the other end of the spectrum is AT&T.

Blue Horseshoe hates AT&T.We've been using AT&T as our cellular carrier since we scored our first cell phone in 1993.  It was one of those Gordon Gekko type models with the handset the size of Oprah's head.  For 18 years we've stayed loyal to AT&T despite living through oodles of dead zones, their terrible customer service, 3 or 4 regime changes and/or mergers.  We've always paid our bill in full...mostly on time... for 212 months in a row.  In exchange we get nothing.  In fact...new customers get a better deal than us, a teaser rate if you will, to sign up. 

AspenSpin is considering an upgrade of our mobile equipment.  Since we are ski habbing in La Jolla, a brand new AT&T store is only a short traffic jam away.  We threw on Sanucks, Mountain Khakis shorts, a TLFI tee-shirt, our Nike 6.0 trucker hat and Oakley shades , jumped in the Audi and hit the mall.  With so many choices, A-Spin figured it would be a good idea to see and touch the phones before deciding on a new model.  Handling the equipment is important to us.   As an aside, we recently received a text message AND a voice mail AND an e-mail  from AT&T reminding us that our bill was "almost" due.   Thanks for the heads up, bro.

Customer Service still counts. The newly remodeled AT&T corporate store in San Diego appeared to be state-of-the-art.  It was large, open and inviting. No threshold resistance.  The new phone options were voluminous, including i-phones.  We were greeted at the entrance by a smiling, tablet wielding "manager" inviting us to add our name to the  "guest list".  He assured  that the short wait to speak to a sales consultant was "only 15 or 20 minutes".  Looking around, there was one other customer in the store, but two sales consultants were heading into the back room with their well deserved lunch of Rubios Fish Tacos and Coca Cola.   The greeter was very friendly so we asked him, "hey, can I pay my bill in the store?"   He replied "of course" he then went on to explain that there is "only" a $5 charge to do the transaction with a "real person" and that we had to "get on the list" in order to do that.  He pointed out the automated payment kisok and assured me that paying with the kiosk was "free".  He added that AT&T is "trying to train our customers to use our automated system".  Awesome...a training session compliments of AT&T.

A quick recap. we've been an AT&T cellular customer for 18 years and we always pay the bill on time.  We've put up with their organizational inefficiancies, their growing pains, their spotty service and dropped calls.   In exchange for that loyalty, we get to wait "15 or 20 minutes" to talk to a salesman, we get to pay a higher fee than "new customers" and as an added bonus get charged a $5 premium to pay our bill in person.  WOW.

As we walked out the door towards the Verizon store in the same mall, the greeter gave us a friendly reminder;  "be sure to Like us on Facebook". 

Word of Mouth can make or break a brand. BRAND LOYALTY 101.

Motor City Madman slashes Aspen.

My ears will never be the same.

It was 1972 or 73, Ted Nugent was scheduled to play a gig at my high school gym.   Somehow... our teacher Senor Muratsky arranged for a rock and roll show at the school as a fund raiser for the Spanish Club. What??  Tickets were $3.  The Nuge already had a huge hit a few years previously with the Amboy Dukes (Journey to the Center of the Mind) but he had not yet reached R & R stardom.  Hey it was a pay day...in the lilly white suburbs of Detroit.  Click TED NUGENT for the wiki.  The Wango Tango is still going strong as evidenced by his recent show in Aspen.

For those of you who were not yet born in 72 or 73 things were different then. While I was pretty much straight as an arrow--- many of the kids at school were on drugs as evidenced by the almost daily OD's.  My classmates typically would head out to "the field" in front of the school to toke up or do mesc. in between classes.  Everybody had long hair then (even me) and we jammed to the quadraphonic stylings of WWWW (W4) or WABX.  The Viet Nam War was raging, the Detroit riots had forced whitey out to the burbs and Ted was just starting to refine his act into the Motor City Mad Man.  Bob Seger, Grand Funk Railroad and Iggy were other popular local acts.

Since I was not yet driving, my folks dropped my friends and I off at the school.  "Yeah...its for the Spanish Club...we might get extra credit" I explained to my Mom. "Have fun" she said as we piled out of the Buick.  About 300 people showed up, and Nuge did not disappoint.  It was loud as f#*K.  Ted said it "i'm  the only black guy here".  After the show, we walked over to ShortStop, the local "party store" where we hung out, drank pop and watched the other kids doing their drugs.  It was sort of an almost famous moment.  My ears are still ringing from Ted's riffs more than 35 years ago. 

Monday night, Uncle Ted hit the stage in Aspen.  AspenSpin missed the show due to our extended stint in ski-hab, but our correspondent Raifie Bass snapped a few pix for us.  Ted played all his hits...and the crowd went wild. 

We last saw Ted in SF in 2008.  Read the story DOG EAT DOG.

Thanks to RAIFIE BASS for the pix.

Our 5 favorite Ted Nugent Jams of all Time.

1) Cat Scratch Fever 

2) Weekend Warriors

3) Motor City Madhouse

4) Stranglehold

5) Journey to the Center of the Mind

The Ocean is Majestic

5 Birthday Wishes 4 America

AspenSpin is proud to be an American.  The USA used to be the greatest country in the world. July 4th is always a celebration but for us a time for reflection.  2011 marks our 235th Birthday and quite possibly an inflection point in American History. Social Studies was always one of our favorite subjects and social commentary is within our blogosphere, so we call 'em as we see 'em.  4th of JULY should be more than just an excuse  to "get your firework on".

Happy Birthday America....here's our 5 B-day wishes for u.

1)  HEATH CARE REFORM:  We figured out what our increasingly expensive health insurance covers....NOTHING. Once we got through the paperwork and the fax transmissions from our provider...we figured it out....NOTHING is COVERED. Preventative medicine...not covered.  Doctor Visits...not covered.  Physical Therapy....was it a pre-existing condition? ..not covered.   Oh...you're dead...that's covered. 

2) NO MORE BOGUS POLITICIANS:  What the f@#K??? Seriously who is running this place.  People want to blame Obama???...at least he's trying.  At least he's not posting his private parts on twitter. Lying; we all know that's been going on in American politics for centuries, but who do you trust now?  We've mortgaged our future for the benefit of a few...we need people we can trust in positions of authority.  Use your vote wisely.

3) GOODWILL TOWARDS MAN:  Can't we all just get along?   Can we please go back to the old days of common courtesy and civility.  Everybody wants to fight all the time???  Hate thy neighbor???  Seriously, America needs to work together to succeed, and we need to figure that out immediately. 

4) PUT YOUR DAMN PHONE DOWN:  This was the conclusion reached by a panel of social media experts at the world famous think tank The Aspen Institute at last week's Aspen Ideas Festival.  In our opinion America's reliance on their mobile devices will lead to further deterioration of our entire social fabric.  This may sound off-point, especially from a "BIG time" blogger, but FACE-to FACE still counts for something.  We don't want to get into a discussion about ageism...but future generations have a tremendous bredth of knowlege its the shallow depth of knowledge that is disconcerting.

5) AN ECONOMIC UPTURN:  The U.S. used to be a net provider, now we're a net consumer.  Whaaaat happened??  When Wall Street's hottest IPO has a main product called "Farm-ville" which is a game that is dependent on FaceBook and the analysts are praising  the "gamification of America" like its a good thing....take a time out.  We need to get back to basics and produce goods and services that people need and want. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA, Go HUGE.

5 Best Things About Aspen.

Next Winter will be AspenSpin's 9th ski season in Aspen (6th as a blogger).  It's been a phenomenal run so far, and we are doing everything in our power to get the party body ready to shred in 2011 /12.   Time away in ski hab always provides us with perspective, and while we love the beach too.. we're planning to go HUGE in Aspen, Colorado next Winter. 

The 5 Best Things About Aspen, according to AspenSpin.com

The POWDER : Click to Enlarge.1) THE POWDER: Aspen may not get the most snow (Mammoth) or the best snow (Utah) but we've got it pretty good. Aspen expects about 300+ inches a year and it usually comes in bunches.  As founder of the Aspen Powder Hounds we have our secret spots on Ajax (only a few are actually secret...dat sh*t gets stomped pretty fast).  Aspen has 4 mountains to choose from, excellent and varied terrain and it's uncrowded by de$ign.  It ain't bad, bro.

2) WALKING to WORK:  Many people do not really consider skiing every day and partying every night to be actual "work". At AspenSpin...it's our full-time job.  Scoring a dog-friendly pad within walking distance of " the office" (The Silver Queen Gondola) is never easy and always expensive. Good news. We are locked and loded for 11/12, which some local lawyers would call a "minor miracle".  See you on the Gondy, ooops The Office at Thanksgiving.

The Chicks.3) THE CHICKS: The Ladies of Aspen are awesome, unfortunately there aren't very many of them. After attending every party in Aspen over the past 6 years...and just eye-ballin' it... our estimated ratio, 7-1 boys to girls. 

There are two basic types of Local Aspen Women; the Granolas and the Glitters.  Both types are a handful.  Granolas come from a nice family, they're well educated, (maybe a prep school), decent college, un-hireable major (think Art History or English Lit. or Psych.), athletic, attractive and friendly. They dig the gnar and the gnarly guys that go with it..  They can ride with the boys, but they have their own club too. They look very hot in gore-tex.  Glitters,... well they shop more than they ski and enjoy private jets, designer togs and expensive jewelry.  They are experts at apres' ski and are great at making  reservations. Some are to young to be Cougs, some are to old to be considered, but they always look sparkley.  They aspire to be  trophy wives or at least a "real housewife".

Suffice to say the talent level in Aspen is very high.

Buy 'em all.4) THE RICH GUYS: Everybody's a playa...playa.  There's a lot of BIG money around.  Approximately 5/8 (remember fractions?) of the Forbes 400 has some relationship with Aspen.  Ya mon, everybody from Goldman has a house here.  We've learned to stash some clean socks at the Sundeck just in case somebody throws out a lunch invite to the super-posh Aspen Mountain Club where de-booting is de-rigueur.  Parking spots in town sell for $300,000, real estate trades around $2000 per square foot and the private jets are lined up like a parade.  Doing biz on the Gondola is a way of life.  Money is no object and conspicuous consumption is still alive and well in Aspen. "Feelin' good Todd",.." Lookin' good Lewis".

#winning #roiding5) THE TRUE CRIME:   The Senior Citizen Cocaine Ring, Lance Armstrong and Tyler Hamilton in an alledged dust up, Charlie Sheen (#winning), The Bomb Scare on New Years, the groping yogi....you can't make this sh*t up.  Fraud and embezzlement are the most popular crimes in Aspen.  Our personal favorite is the drunk driving, former Buttermilk ski instructor who led cops on a high-speed auto chase only to roll his porn-filled truck on Owl Creek Rd. (no one was hurt....except the porn collection).  TIA...this is Aspen.  It never gets dull.

So we quote  AAAAHnaaald,  the former Governator of Calif., as well as a tarnished ex- Kennedy, domestic help impregnator and regular Aspen visitor...I'll Be Baaaaaack.  Let's Paaaaaahty.

AspenSpin is still in the game.The 5 Best Things About Aspen, Colorado. Walking to Work is one of them.