If you know anything about offline and Internet marketing, you know that the customer is increasingly becoming important. Here are a couple of stories.

A while back I ordered a sub in a Subway restaurant in Newton (MA) where the owner who was an obviously disgruntled franchise owner. He went on about how “the amount of product” is “built into the price” and the fact that I wanted extra tomatos was an issue. Aside from making me feel very uncomfortable, he didn’t take note that all I wanted was tomatos and lettuce (no cheese, nothing else) which saved him money anyways. Well, a few months later I drove by and he was out of business. What came first, the bad attitude leading to a lack of customers or the lack of customers leading to the bad attitude?

In 2005, the Subway stamps program was cancelled. Apparently people were selling them on ebay and there were counterfitters and such. Well, that’s fine except that the price of Subway subs accounts for that extra one. When you order 10 subs you get one free. Well, where’s our discount?? It must have been a great time to buy stock in the company since there was surely a jump in profits.