Well, they did and I did. I ran to the train with recent purchase in hand, my mouth watering at the anticipation of the wonderful flavor and luscious mouth feel of Ciao Bella dulce de leche gelato. I’m a big fan of gelato and dulce de leche and of this brand in particular.

Sadly, when I started wolfing down (did I mention I was hungry?) the gelato, I was unpleasantly surprised by the quality of the product. It wasn’t sweet. Its texture was more grainy than velvety. It just wasn’t very good. I was quite disappointed because I had never had a bad experience with this brand before. So I decided to whine about it.

I took out my phone and tweeted:

albertoferrer Usually lovely Ciao Bella dulce de leche flavor gelato today not so much. Bland, a little rancid, even some ice cristals. Sigh.
8:39 PM Feb 4th from txt

About an hour later, a fellow fan of the Ciao Bella brand tweeted:

mindytweets @albertoferrer ohhh, fail!! Try the blackberry cabernet flavor, yum!
9:41 PM Feb 4th f rom UberTwitter in reply to albertoferrer

I got home and thought nothing more about the incident. That was until I had some free time the following week and checked my Twitter feed more closely. There I found this tweet, from the Ciao Bella folks:

CiaoBellaGelato @albertoferrer Oh NO! Sounds like a remelt issue. Please call our office or email info@ciaobellagelato.com and we will handle it. sorry
2:58 pm Feb 5th from TweetDeck in reply to albertoferrer

I was floored. These guys had not only picked up my tweet, but they had tentatively diagnosed the issue and responded with (1) a promise to make it right and (2) contact information. And that was done in less than one working day. I was also thrilled.

Following their instructions, I emailed the company, explaining the situation with the tweets above pasted into the body of the email. This was on a Wednesday afternoon. The next day I received an email reply from Justine DeRose at Ciao Bella.

She apologized for the incident, which clearly was not their fault (it was the retailer’s), explained in more detail what might have been the cause of the issue, and asked for the code at the bottom of the package so they could better look into the matter. She also offered a coupon for a free pint.

The explanation was great, as it directed any questions I might have about the product away from the product itself. Asking for the code on the package also was great because it suggested that they’d really look into the matter (“these people are serious about the quality of their gelato!” I thought). And of course the free pint coupon was just icing on the proverbial cake: unexpected and delightful.

I replied to the email saying that I no longer had the packaging but letting her know where I had made my purchase. She then asked for my address and mailed me the coupon. I received the free pint coupon this weekend.

Since this situation transpired, I have visited the Ciao Bella website several times (that’s where I was able to put a face to the name of the person at Ciao Bella who was actively engaged in resolving the issue), I have looked for stores that carry their product beyond the stores I usually frequent, and I even tried to buy a pint online. I’ve told the story to several people I know and they’re all impressed with how quickly Ciao Bella handled it, how positive the experience was, and how big an advocate for their brand I’ve become. And now I’ve written this post and will tweet about it.

Was that customer service? Was that marketing? That’s for another post. But from the perspective of a consumer, it doesn’t matter. It was done very well and it will pay off for Ciao Bella. Kudos to them and special thanks to Justine.

Update:
Within an hour of my tweeting the link to this post, Ciao Bella re-tweeted it with a thank you and responded here with a comment by Deborah Holt, their VP of Marketing.

Even before the US economy took its swan dive into the commode, corporate sites targeting Hispanics were few and far between. Never mind the research supporting the need for companies to have Hispanic market sites up and running, even with full transactional capabilities. Never mind the research finding that Hispanics are going online in droves and finding precious little content tailored to them. Many clients still resisted and remained general market, English-only, on the Web. This was the case even for marketers with support for Hispanic advertising. Imagine that, investing in advertising to the Hispanic market, while alienating the same consumers online.

Today’s economic realities make things even tougher. As marketing budgets get cut left and right (enough has been written about the folly of cutting marketing investment in recessionary times, so I won’t go into it here), multicultural marketing budgets commonly find themselves in the crosshairs of short-term-thinking clients. Keeping the Hispanic website becomes a line item that is often too easy to cut as companies reduce headcount in internal support staff (who’ll manage the Hispanic site now?) and overall marketing communications targeting this population (would they prioritize the website over running a few more television spots?).

Especially in these tough times, clients need to reconsider any thought of cutting the support for their Hispanic-targeted corporate website. Here are a few reasons why, some of which I alluded to above:

1. Hispanics are online. According to comScore, there were 20 million Hispanics online last month. Brands should be there too. Marketers should not alienate Hispanic consumers on the Web by providing only a general market site.
2. Hispanics who are online tend to be better-educated and have higher incomes and better credit, making the Web a bit of a filter for the cream of the crop of Hispanic consumers. Talk about efficiency!
3. There is a dearth of Hispanic-targeted content online, making any marketer’s content stand out much more than in the general market, where there’s plenty of me-too content to go around.
4. Hispanic consumers often go online to learn about the products and services they seek, even if they end up completing the transaction in offline channels. Lacking a website, where will these consumers go to get the information they need to make a purchase decision?
5. Analyzing server logs from their Hispanic-targeted sites can provide companies valuable insights into consumer behavior. Product preference, information needs, purchase behavior, and more can be gleaned from “watching” consumers on the site.
6. Marketers who cut their Hispanic sites may find their Hispanic consumers more easily swayed by the competition, which by maintaining a robust online presence for Hispanics, sent the clear message that the group is important to them.

In summary, I would strongly advise clients to not only forget about cutting Hispanic-targeted websites, but to increase the support (e.g., funding, resources) behind them. It’s an investment that will pay off handsomely in more business from this very attractive population.

The IAB

The current and updated Ad Unit Guidelines can be found here. The site will include information on how the industry can provide feedback on these new sizes.

The Guidelines suggest various units that are being voluntarily introduced or offered by publishers. Agencies should consult publishers to understand their full creative specifications. Also note that the IAB Ad Sizes Working Group will be analyzing data in the soon-to-be launched Creative Spec Database to recommend file weights for each of those units.