Did you know that Anheuser-Busch actually has an employee with the job title of "Unsolicited Ideas Coordinator"?
Evidently, they receive so many ideas they need a full-time employee to coordinate them. Problem is, her job is not to flesh them out to see which ones have merit, but to enforce "the strict policy of not accepting unsolicited ideas from outside the Anheuser-Busch family" -- including the ideas sent in by lifetime customers.
You see, on December 18, 2005, I sent three, top AB executives letters containing an idea for a Super Bowl commercial. (Didn't want anything -- just had a crazy idea and felt like sharing.) Then on June 19, I received a letter from their "idea cop" informing me that, while they "value [me] as a customer," they don't want me sending them ideas.
Let's see. They value my money, but they don't consider me family. And they are so egotistical that they want all ideas to come from their "marketing staff and approved agencies" (actually said that in the letter they sent me).
And company executives wonder why Anheuser-Busch is losing market share.
PS: If you want to see the idea I sent, download the PDF version of the letter I wrote. (Note: The one I actually sent was on my old company letterhead.)
PPS: Anybody know a good beer that is similar to Michelob AmberBock but made by someone other than AB? ;-)
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Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association
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