As this story unfurled I was reminded of James Hammond’s presentation at an O4RB Meeting on the subject of Brands or Branding  (business brands that is as distinct from those applied with hot irons).

For something like 30 years I had been protecting myself from the stresses and strains of uncertain motoring dilemma with my membership of the Royal Automobile Club.

Any car can break down or suffer unforeseen problems no matter how well it is serviced and, in truth I came to regard my RAC membership as more important to me than my statutory car insurance policy. The good old RAC and its devoted team never once let me down, and would always go that extra mile to get me back on the road as soon as possible.

On one occasion, after a broken metal aerial had been flung up from the road to spear my car’s fuel tank, the patrolman even went so far as to make a repair by cutting an unused rubber duck aerial from the roof of his own vehicle, and using it, together with (I think) some epoxy resin, satisfactorily plug the hole. That repair was still holding strong when some time later I had the fuel tank replaced under a claim on my comprehensive insurance policy.

However the RAC are not the cheapest bunch to belong to, and as many of their rivals advertise strongly, and appear to have a good and happy following I switched horses for one of the others last year to save some money. I mean why not! They all offer the same service don’t they?

Just short of a year later I am here to tell you that nothing is further from the truth.

Just a few weeks ago, while in the Lake District with my wife, our caravan and trusty old land Rover Discovery we discovered a broken exhaust pipe hanging dangerously below the Landy.

No problem I thought, I’ll just ring my trusty break down service and ask them to send a man to safely secure the pipe so I can drive to an exhaust centre and have a new one fitted. You may imagine my surprise when an hour later I was visited by a man with an enormous recovery vehicle but hardly a tool kit to his name. All he was able to produce was a screwdriver and some cable ties (plastic cable ties) with which he tied up the exhaust pipe and drove off into the midday sun. (Oh yes we were in Coniston during the first rainless week for 6 weeks – it wasn’t all bad luck.)

When very shortly afterwards I again rang the breakdown firm they acknowledged the shortfall in their service, and agreed that if I located an appropriate exhaust centre they would provide recovery of our Landy to that centre the following morning. This was done but meanwhile we needed to request a hire car. No problem with one being provided but it had to be brought to us so we could be taken in it to the hire company’s office many miles away to complete the hire agreement before we drove it back to Coniston

All this wasted a day and a half of a one-week holiday!

So there is a lesson here. Just because the RAC has a proven and reliable brand it is a mistake to assume that any similar organisation can even hold a candle to its level of service. I have been extremely happy to rejoin the RAC and pay them whatever they ask.

Now if I can generate for my business the sort of Brand that the RAC has!!