Randy Saunders

My neighbor was preparing a spaghetti and meat sauce dinner for her family when she was interrupted by an alarming phone call. “This is Kroger calling to notify you that the beef you bought at our store may be tainted. Throw it away—it could cause severe illness!”

Of course she was very grateful that the nation’s largest traditional grocer had personally warned her about this week’s Nebraska Beef recall alert. She immediately discarded the partially cooked meat sauce—suddenly take-out sounded far more appealing!

I was also impressed with Kroger’s responsive notification. But I was also curious ... in this age of megastores and customer anonymity, how did Kroger know that she had purchased potentially tainted beef? Could they have tracked her down through their “Kroger Plus” customer loyalty program?

I did a little research and found out that’s exactly what happened.

After the 2007 “pet food recall” and other recent scares, a few months ago Kroger...

In the Advertising Age article, "How Apple Is Blurring the Line Between Marketing and Service," Pete Blackshaw finds that leading brands like Apple and Zappos are redefining and reshaping the consumer experience through better customer interaction.

"Whether explicitly acknowledged or not, there's an unmistakable "service is marketing" mantra pervading every aspect of the Apple Store. And that's something every brand, even those not as shiny as Apple's, can learn from."

Blackshaw outlines important new lessons being introduced by Apple:

• Service is marketing. As marketers struggle to "engage" consumers, service may well be the easiest and most gratifying starting point -- and one with high sales conversion potential.
• Problems are opportunities. Tech support is an...