Charging up brand presence...

If you've travelled from Heathrow recently then you will have noticed the Samsung charge points liberally scattered around the various departure lounges. What a fantastic idea! Samsung are offering a genuine service for free, and building a tangible real-world presence around it. I've got used to the idea of being able to juice up in the lounge, to squeeze that little bit more life out of my laptop over a long-haul journey. The consumer in me can't help but feel warm towards Samsung for giving me that opportunity. As time has passed though the service has lapsed somewhat, with powerpoints dropping out of service or becoming more temperamental. Last time I travelled was particulalrly bad with none of the power points in my lounge working. This obviously took the shine off the service, especially now that I had come to expect it, even rely on it. In all, hats off to Samsung for providing this useful service, a good example of how brands should be using their marketing to offer something that is genuinely of use to consumers. However, just like online, offline presences need an ongoing commitment to make them work. Without this brand owners risk appearing half-hearted and undermining the very real warmth that genuinely useful initiatives should be generating.