"Feel like a Customer again."

This is the tag line to a radio commercial I heard over the weekend. It was for an electronics store. Not a big box store, but something a little smaller, and more friendly.

At least, I think the tag line is trying to tell me they are more friendly.

There is a problem with this line. And the problem begins when language from a company’s marketing group or ad agency begins to leak out into their advertising.

Marketers think of those people who buy from their stores or their web sites as “customers”. It’s the language they use as marketers. They talk about customer satisfaction, and customer feedback.

But what do regular people feel? How do they view themselves as they walk into your store?

More specifically, to a person’s ears, does the line, “Feel like a customer again” make sense or ring true?

Do I want to feel like a “customer” again? Do I not feel like a customer when I buy from a big box store?

Or put it this way...as a regular person, do I differentiate between big stores and small stores by the degree to which I am made to feel like a “customer”?

I don’t think so.

I can see what the ad is trying to achieve. But they have picked the wrong phrase and wrong word.

It’s not about people feeling like customers...they feel like customers wherever they shop.

It’s about how comfortable, confident and trusting they feel.