A recent example from National Rental Car.

An associate rented a car from National for a week for about $125. She needed to extend the rental for a second week and that week alone was quoted at over $300. Wait. Not as stupid as it gets.

After much discussion of how such a discrepancy could exist, she asked what if she picked up a different car, same class for the second week in a new rental? The surprising answer was that if she extended her current car for a week, the bill was over $300 for the new week, but if she drove the first car back to the airport and rented the same grade but a different car for the new week, the cost would be only $100.

I am not sure who looks the most stupid here, the National Rental brand or the work associate who drove 30 miles back to the airport and traded cars and another 30 miles back to where she was working, and still stayed with National.

She does however report that the brand loyalty and connection she once felt for National is now reduced to a relationship based purely on price.

Her change is not in the best interest of the brand, National, which just slid back from Loyalty to one choice within her evoked set of several other companies, to be chosen in the future solely on price.