Someone Turned the Quality Dial

Have you noticed that the quality of things has changed? It's like someone turned an enormous quality dial to the left. I have examples although I won't mention brand names to protect unsuspecting brand managers.

We go through many gallons of milk at our house. One gallon had a spot on the handle where the plastic was so thin that I had to gingerly pour the milk from an awkward position on the handle, lest I punch through the defective area. Once we'd used enough milk so the level was below the handle, it indeed did puncture. Catastrophe averted, but irritation created.

Every year I make photo books, holiday cards and thank you notes of images taken from my pretty high quality digital camera. But this year I wasn't thrilled with the quality. Everything printed just a bit muddy. Not to the point as to warrant my returning these family gifts and leaving them with nothing to open under the Christmas tree, but muddy nonetheless. Like someone forgot to clean the equipment.

Even simple things like the fisharee tickets we always purchase to support my home town weren't perforated this year. We had to cut the raffle number portion with a scissors.

And when it comes to food, portion sizes seem to be constricting too. There's just a bit fewer chunks of cheese in the packet, a little less meat in the mix. Let's not even talk about the increased number of times I've picked up a paper grocery bag and the handle rips off (and please don't berate me because I keep forgetting to put canvas bags in my car; my intentions are sound). Now that I've run across it a few times, I'm noticing it everywhere.

These are meager examples. And the quality difference is obviously not so great that I'm writing letters to corporate boards and posting brand names on consumer advocacy blogs. It's difficult to know if these examples are strategic decisions to shave costs or if quality control departments have seen budget cuts.

But here's the important thing: I am a customer and I have noticed. And if I have, so have others.

Quality changes aren't invisible. When quality is diminished, even slightly, brand image becomes tarnished. Although quality adjustments are endemic in this economic climate, what will you do when things pick back up again? How will you restore your quality image to your customer base?

If brand managers are consciously changing the quality of the goods they market, they must ask themselves: what is the risk of losing a customer because she punctures the defective plastic and, burdened with a huge milk mess, vows never to buy that brand again?