Any marketing expert would say that trust is essential to gain a foothold in the consumer psyche. People normally want to do business with entities they can trust. But one property developer seemed to have forgotten this on Friday, as The National reported yesterday, by releasing just 10 townhouses instead of the 60 it had promised.
What’s worse is that it had so keenly whet the appetite of potential buyers that hundreds queued through the night outside the company’s sales office in the hope of snapping up one of the houses. It’s safe to say that the estimated 500 people who stood in line left feeling misled and disappointed.
One has to wonder what the developer was thinking by playing what has to be said is a poor marketing tool. Did they think it was a clever way to keep excitement at fever pitch? If so, it’s a once-only game. In business, as in life, one must honour a promise and pay one’s vows.
