How to break the trust of a brand in just one faulty click
a love-hate relationship between my designer mouse and me
It is a true story, and the story starts from last night…
As a designer, I have an elegant, intelligence, tailored-made designer mouse with my Macbook. And I’m not the one who called it ‘designer mouse’, the well-known, trust-worthy owner — Microsoft named it after this. The mouse worth this name, at least, before last night I thought like this.
While working on the UI for the final pitching next week, suddenly, I can not zoom in or out, I can not scroll the page down or up. Yes, the wheel went wrong, it became smoothly and useless than ever.
I thought it’s my problem. I love it so much, its seamless surface, the neat and elegant look. Then, I desperately hold it in my hand and try to figure out is there any possibility I can bring it back to life. I ask our dearest Mr. google for answers, but the answer is ‘no’, there is no way I could fix it, cause the reason why it broke is due to a basic design fault! It means that, no matter how careful I used it, it will still end up the same — broken like this time. The answer entirely breaks my heart and let me start to doubt my choice…
Hey, Microsoft!
You named your child who had a design fault ‘designer mouse’? What do you have in mind? How hilarious, ironic will it be? How could you have the heart to do this and see your child be bullied in public? And you dressed it in a perfect shape to attract we designers’ attention, lead us to think about ‘hey, we have the same name! It must be fate, I choose you!’. And after few months of pleasant memory, we found that all of this is a scam! What you actually want is the money in our pocket! How could you do this to me, to us who believes in you and know you more than 20 years?
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True, I don’t know what is in their mind, those designers who work for Microsoft. But to me, the wheel is designer’s life, that is the only reason we need a mouse for. and today, with one click it all went wrong, with one click I know all the scheme you had behind my back. All the trust has gone, and I feel so disappointed in you. Believe it or not, I still remember we used to be so close…..
after the horrible night, I purchased the same designer mouse, cause I just can not forget how beautiful it is. But, there is always a but. It never feels the same as before. Is not reliable and make me feel confident anymore. Instead, i keep thinking of how Microsoft treats me, how stupid am I of trying to give it a second chance? When will this new mouse break? is this click? next? or the one after?
Is this scene seems familiar?
At that moment, I realised, it’s just like the lover who cheated on you once. Even just once, it’s enough, he/she lost the trust of you. You will never be the same person before you met, you will not be able to treat as usual like nothing had happened. It’s literally gone. The trust in the past 20 years of the brand has all gone, in that click.
See how fragile could a brand be. It’s just like our heart, once it wounds. The next partner has to take ages to heal it. And that’s the reason why we said ‘ branding is about feeling, is about humanity’.
So, take good care of your brand. Don’t let it just exposed to critics and rumours.
Think about what will you do when you see someone hurts your beloved? (hey, no violence!) yes, please, do something, at least try.
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[ afterword ]
It’s a real story, as I said. I even go through the whole process of ‘5 stages of grief’ 😂, but after a long, long night of struggling, then (bravely) decided to order another one made by Logitech. And said to myself, remember how it hurts? Great, everyone deserves a second chance except those who might hurt you again.
Am I taking this to far? don’t know, maybe, but that is my true feeling, and the feeling is unquestionable. (okay~)
Lastly, thank you for reading a weird story. If you have any thought in mind (or heart), please don’t hesitate to share. If you like my quirky style of writing, please give me applause and follow my page :)
