Background
The story starts with a classic lack of alignment by DELL and their totally rubbish back up that leaves my Founding Partner with no working laptop, no support and frankly no interest whatsoever from DELL. Shame: we were just about to move all the company's Laptops to them…still what does that matter to them!

We needed to get back up and running, we are an SME and time is money, so we shot down to buy a Sony laptop from the Sony Centre mainly for the brand values of quality, reliability, and service. After all this was the company whose mission was to change the way the world thought about Japanese products…believe you me they have really succeeded in that…negatively!

We came to understand that the Sony Centres aren't Sony Centres; they are Sonex Centres selling Sony and that seems to be the starting point for some very unaligned behaviour.

The Experience

The first experience of the Sony (Sonex) Centre was pretty good. They seemed to be informed, helpful (if a little disinterested), they understood what we needed and were delighted when taking over £1,000 off us. We left happy in the knowledge of the brand and its overt reputation – oh how I wish I had gone onto the web chat rooms about their laptops, it would have saved days of hassle.

Within 36 hours our high speed machine was running at the speed of a tape driven Sinclair of the 1970's - so off we go to visit 2… somewhat less satisfying!

When the problem was explained, the first thing they did was to discover a scratch that required an electron microscope to find it. This meant that as it had cosmetic damage it could not be replaced and must go back to Sony to be repaired. Trust me; if there was a scratch then we would have accepted it. The staff member even phoned Gary later to say how upset he had been to do that but it was company policy to make sure they did not have to offer a replacement!! Process designed to enhance the brand reputation, I ask myself?!

Ultimately, they had to send the machine back to Sony as they were a franchise and had nothing to do with Sony! So off it went. And there stood poor Gary, laptop-less.

His machine returned 3 weeks later, with a free screen cleaner and a note from the head of Sony customer service UK. The fan had been replaced and all was well.

It was not. The fan made the sound of a low flying spitfire and it did not have the power lead we left. We phoned about the lead to be told that we were wrong and we have taken it away with us…so now we have been made to feel like liars! …Only to be phoned the next day to say they had found it. An apology? You guessed…no chance.

Back to our friends at The Sony Centre for more ritual humiliation of a customer. It was highly unlikely that anything was wrong (we were clearly incompetent idiots) but they would send it back anyway. To describe the environment as hostile would have been the understatement of the year.

So a further 3 weeks later the machine arrived back and all is well in the world. They basically threw the machine at us!

A delighted Gary returned to his laptop, but none of the software we had put on it was there, so a phone call was made, to a delightful man who informed that this was my problem not his and he even said it was a pleasure when I thanked him for handing his customer problem back to the customer. When I asked him about the value he felt he was adding to the Sony brand his reply was that they were merely a franchise and in fact no different to a Comet or Currys! He did agree they only sold Sony, had Sony over the door and did present themselves as a Sony brand!

From their website..

Sony Centres are the pinnacle of Sony's retail distribution. A cutting edge store environment dedicated to offering the full Sony product range. Staff are Sony trained and committed to offering exemplary levels of customer service, coupled with impressive technical know how. As well as a selection of competitive and exclusive offers, they also carry certain products which are exclusive to Sony Centres.

Brand Alignment?

Do I really have to spell it out?! Alignment is not about saying things and hoping we believe it is about doing things and making us believe, the consumer has the power to make or break brands that say one thing but do another. Ask M&S and Sainsbury about that one.

Shocking and shameful.

This is clearly a case of everything works well when shifting boxes but at the time a customer really needs help both of the brands involved run for the hills. One is driven to the conclusion that for Sony this further reflects their decline as seen in their security breeches in its gaming division and as for Sonex…sorry Sony Centres,.. they have processes, policy and training that are great at selling but not for looking after customers. In such difficult trading times I would have thought they would seek to keep and grow their customer base rather than create negative advocates. The sad thing is that it isn’t just us, it's all over the internet, where real consumer conversations are going on.

The insides of organisations always leak out and I wouldn't mind betting both these organisations are scratching their heads as to why they have issues with their brands and its relationship with its customers….others do it so much better.

However my campaign to impact on the brand is currently running at 2 conferences I have presented at, and at least £6000 of sales prevented for both Sony and Sony Centre. I will hopefully beat my target of £10,000 soon, although the slump in retail sales isn't doing much to help me.

To sum up, it’s so so dangerous for a business to put its brand in someone else's hands. Customers don't distinguish. They vote with their feet, their wallets, and their blogs.