It's About the First Impression

I don't usually write about consumer products and relate it to education, especially regarding alcohol. However, I could not resist this opportunity. I had friends visiting and decided to add a new beer to our tailgate ... Abita's Purple Haze, a raspberry wheat malt beer. I was exceptionally disappointed. So where's the link to higher education? All the reviews for Purple Haze on tap are great. When they put it in a bottle, it is horrible ... but they charge a premium. With continuing education and especially distance education, you just don't put the same product online without testing it, yet expect it to be the same while charging a premium. What you also can't do is set the expectation for your product so high and not reach it. Package it and price it as a premium and consumers will expect high satisfaction and delight. Marketers ... you can't overpromote a bad product. You need to push back and ask for product testing. Customer service people ... you need to deliver the services that support the product. Fail here and you too will never get them back. Program designers, planners and faculty ... Put a bad product out there and you'll never get repeat purchase. Sorry, Abita, but your beer was so bad for what I paid for it and despite your nice packaging, I won't buy it again ... ever. In fact, I now relate Abita as a brand as a weak beer. If Abita comes back and does something amazing and is able to convert me back, I'd be stunned. What would a university do with a poor online offering?