I was leafing through a copy of the times (arguably, in my opinion, the best newspaper in the entire world) when i came across an advert for an airline which made a trickle of dribble of excited anticipation run down my chin. You’ll see the advert here and probably guess that it was the line “Its hassle free or you fly free”. Knowing how often you can be hassled when you fly I thought this was just a magic statement and couldn’t wait to click on the link cityjet.com/tryus to see how they delivered on this guarantee

But that’s when a guarantee is not a guarantee – when there are so many darned conditions that you know you will never win. when you give a guarantee its got to be simple and uncomplicated, and if you louse up, you’ve got to deliver on it.

Simple like the plumber who says “if I don’t turn up on time Ill do your plumbing for free” which made him a very prosperous and successful plumber because it differentiated him from the plumbing pack. To exercise that guarantee the consumer only had to ask “did he turn up on time”.