To Graco’s credit

A short time after I wrote my recent post “Graco thinks dads are stupid” I was contacted by the Graco company. I must say I was a little surprised at first to hear that they wanted to speak with me, but I willingly took the opportunity. I exchanged a few brief emails with a company representative which culminated in a phone conversation with their public relations manager.

Before the call I was unsure of what to expect. I didn’t think they would have cared beyond the fact that, in my opinion, their slogan “Ask moms who know” stinks. In my post I stated:

I’m surprised they haven’t adjusted it to reflect that modern fathers are very involved. Am I truly offended? No. Maybe a little irked that I dumped a couple hundred bucks on an item from a company that thinks I’m not quite all there. I can get that for free elsewhere. Just as long as the thing doesn’t collapse they could have scrawled personal insults on the box with a Sharpie and I’d still use it. I just find it interesting that in today’s politically correct world they would maintain a slogan that alienates dads.

I wasn’t irate, threatening action or otherwise distraught, just making an observation, and the call reflected that. The PR person with whom I spoke basically said that they realize that the slogan is not the best and the intent was not to exclude fathers. She said that their original goal with the slogan was to speak to the groups of women who often tend to be more talkative than men regarding baby products, which I completely understand.

She stated that they actively involve both mothers and fathers in their product testing and development, which I don’t doubt. My contention was that it seemed like only the moms made it into the marketing war room. She indicated that they’ve heard similar feedback from others and they may be moving away from the ‘ask moms’ slogan sometime in the near future.

I make my purchase decisions based on product attributes and quality, but this was a very good step towards developing brand loyalty. To Graco’s credit, they are at least listening. I have had customer service nightmares with other baby companies and many of my comments fell on deaf ears.

I hope that every customer receives a high level of attention, not just those with lots of readers.

I know that I’m not the only one who has had noteworthy experiences shopping for babies and kids, I just happen to have a voice. I’d love to hear from any of you as to your experiences, good or bad, with particular brands or retailers that you might want discussed.