Let’s face it: there are many groceries we can chose from. Within close distance, I have Gelson’s, Albertson’s, and two Ralph’s.  Costco and Trader Joe’s are also nearby. (Yes, I can eat my way around the neighborhood!) 

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It happens all the time: A full-page ad is placed in a major monthly publication. The ad touts the service excellence of their product. Catchy phrases. Great promises. Major dollars are spent to create an implied image in the mind of the consumer. And it can vanish in a heartbeat if promises made are not promises kept—if the derived image cancels out the implied image!  

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"IT” starts in Gary, Indiana at US Steel’s immense integrated mill (the largest of its kind in the Northern Hemisphere). “IT” continues in Orlando with the United States Postal Service and Hurricane Irene. And “IT doesn’t stop until long after I return home to Southern California and a 7.0 earthquake. The “IT” is a laptop malfunction—the unnatural calamity created when technology and a virus meet. 

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“No one ever bought a ¼ inch drill bit because that’s what they really want,” wrote Harvard business professor Ted Levitt. “What they really want is a quarter inch hole.” And, what customers would really like to do is snap their fingers and get a ¼ inch hole… just like Captain Kirk could do on Star Trek. But, they have to deal with the process of getting a hole. 

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Throughout the long, howling night of Saturday Dec. 26, Jim and Stephen crouched in their storm shelter as 11 tornadoes roared through Garland, TX and the Dallas Metroplex. 

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You just received the letter from Anthem Blue Cross. The opening line:  "We'd like to thank you for choosing Anthem Blue Cross. We value the trust you have placed in us."  

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In one day, I experienced the following:  

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