Marketing Trend

My friend contacted me last week asking if they can get me and my daughter to join a focus group discussion for a chocolate drink company. They were looking for moms with a 7 to 9 year old child and somehow I fit the profile.

So yesterday, at 5 pm, they came into my house and posed all sorts of questions mainly focusing on my relationship with my daughter and what sorts of things do we do together. They presented to me pictures of prospective packaging for their product and asked what appealed to me most and why. They also showed various pictures of what would describe my relationship with my daughter. The discussion lasted for about 2 hours wherein they ended it by giving a token of their appreciation for the time I spent with them.

It was a breeze and surprisingly I enjoyed the whole thing. Today’s research companies use a lot of these focus group discussions to get a feel of what consumers want in their product. Gone are the days wherein they would do the surveys via phone. They would rather spend time and resources on really getting to know their market before launching a new ad on TV or print.

A wise decision, I would say. It would definitely save them heaps of of money.

Toshiba projector TV....an owner's headache

Our Toshiba projector TV has been damaged again for the 2nd time by the same culprits. It's mice! We bought this over a year ago and still in its warranty period when the motherboard was affected by the pee of a mouse. Yes, that's right... shake your head in disbelief that our house has those pests. Well, we did all we can to eliminate these through baits, traps & poison. Hey, my husband even bought that apparatus that claims to get rid of rats through radio waves. What a joke! The only thing that minimized the pests was when got ourselves a cat. Yes, that good ol' reliable cat. The only problem is the cat became cats that we had no place anymore for all of them and my youngest son got an allergy from it. He would have a whooping cough every night. So after eliminating all possible causes of allergens, the cats had to be given away.

Now back to the Toshiba TV.

So our projector TV was pulled out for close to a month. They finally informed us that the motherboard got corroded and that this will not be covered by the warranty. I said, What?! I argued and reasoned out that we did not in any way tamper the TV and this is still covered by the warranty. After weeks of endless follow-ups, sending out emails to department heads and being irate, they finally gave in and charged us a much lower amount. We requested that all possible entrances of the supposed to be culprit should be covered. They said yes, they have covered all areas.

So months passed or exactly just as our TV turned 1 year old, the colors started to get funny again. I said oh,oh. Not again. I noticed that this happens when we have been out of the house for a long time and the TV is not being used. So again I called their authorized service center. They pulled it out and after 2 weeks, they gave me a ring. As I was picking up the phone, I said to myself that I should get ready to hear something that I do not want to hear. True enough, they told me that it was again the motherboard and it would cost us roughly Php 30,000 to have it replaced. The person on the other line consoled me by saying that if you will have it fixed, the check-up fee of Php 2,000 will not be charged anymore. As if saying that would make me feel better.

I was so shocked with total disbelief. Not with the price they quoted because I was expecting it already having to go through it the second time. I was shocked with disbelief that this is happening to us! That we made a bad choice by buying Toshiba over other brands. Even the service center that handled our TV told us that most of the repairs they handled are of the same reason... MICE. The person we talked to hunched that there might be something in the material of the TV that was used that makes it attractive to mice. Since the projector TV's inside is big and warm, it makes it a more comfy environment for rats to cuddle up and do their thing there.

Out of pure hopelessness, my husband wrote to Toshiba Hong Kong informing them of our disgust over their product. We didn't bother writing to Toshiba Philippines because our previous experience was so stressful. Yes, they gave in to our request but only after shaking hell and heaven did they finally listen. So hubby sent the email to their Hong Kong counterpart not expecting any response at all.

But guess what?

Two days ago, he received a call from Toshiba Philippines verifying the information that they got from Toshiba HK. Obviously, Toshiba HK acted on our email by endorsing our problem to the Philippine branch. And since this endorsement came from HK, it surely got the attention of our country's branch manager. Well, they said they will probe into our problem and assured us that they would call back. They didn't call back but the manager of the authorized service center called us saying that Toshiba Philippines called him inquiring about our TV and its problem. They told him that they would assist us.

Now I do not know what the word assist means. And I don't want to assume anything but it sure made my day.

I'll just wait for the developments.