Bangalore-Delhi-Bangalore day flights are tiresome. By the time you are at the end of your wits and patience, the pilot announces that we have one more hour to reach Delhi, much to our groans. I had to take one for a meeting 2 weeks ago and opted for Vistara both ways. It was surprisingly pleasant all the way – good food, great service, and very clean interiors!
But this post is more about the tiresome part. In the evening flight, when Vistara served snacks, there was also a bar of chocolate. It was a nice touch, a full bar of chocolate for myself, that I need not share with my kids 🙂 Guilty pleasure.
But it wasn’t a Cadbury as one would expect by default. It was Hoppits! Perhaps a deal between Schmitten (parent company of Hoppits) and Vistara, but I won’t complain at all – it was, as usual, sweeter than necessary (typical of most Indian chocolates), but good for an occasional indulgence. Because I was bored (exhausted with watching stuff on my phone and listening to my audiobook), I looked up the text in the pack more deeply. And found this intriguing text on the side that was hidden (below the back flap). It says,
“Hoppits is crafted with choicest ingredients to deliver rich, heavenly products. If you are not wowed by the Hoppits experience, please return the whole pack to Consumer Services Cell – Rajhans House, 3rd Floor, Varachcha Road, Surat or write to us at relations@schmitten.co and/or Toll-free 1800301101800.”
I recall seeing something similar more prominently mentioned in the pack of President butter. In the front, it says, ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed. 100% money back’. And in the back, this!
First question, that is also me thinking aloud: has anyone (even one person) ever opted for these choices? To call the brand on the toll-free? The last time I called Levi’s toll-free, . Even better, has anyone ever sent the pack back to the brand, in either case?
Second question – Hoppits is Rs.25. That President Butter pack is Rs.63. Beyond not buying the products again (a simple option), if we were dissatisfied, would you bother spending your time, money and effort on returning the pack? Would you consider doing so?
Third question – what constitutes ‘satisfaction’? Or ‘wowed’? How are we to judge whether we were satisfied by a… err, there’s no other way to put it… a small cube of butter? Or, ‘wowed’ by a bar of chocolate? What is wowed, in the first place? What are the emotional metrics that we should be cognizant of, to be ‘wowed’? By a Rs.25 worth bar of chocolate, for context.
If the product was stale, spoilt etc. I can understand the sentiment of letting the brand know (examples of Cadbury chocolate worms, for example). But wowed and satisfaction seem like grey areas and I’d love to know the thought process behind adding these texts so meticulously in the product packs!
Is it all just a confidence-boosting tactic that works like, “If they can so confidently mention money back or return them to us, the product must really be good, eh?!”.