Friday, October 10

American Arbitration Association Mediation

Three things to note about the American Arbitration Association's mediation offering on it's new look website;

1. The Triple A must have the biggest branding challenge in the business - I mean "American Arbitration Association Mediation" - how does that work on any level?

I suppose it works by doing what Kentucky Fried Chicken did when they rebranded to KFC when the F word got in the way, and make it AAA Mediation.


2. On the plus side though, it's only 50 bucks for a mediation online with a "trained, experienced AAA Staff Mediator".

Count'em $50. No, there are no hidden costs, that's it, $50 to mediate a two party $10,000 or less dispute.

3. But on the down side, the small print says the online mediator "may suspend or terminate the mediation if s/he feels that the mediation will lead to an unjust or unreasonable result".

Sorry? So if the mediator doesn't like where things are heading the mediator has a veto?

4. Oh yeah, there's a 4th; AAA ads tank;

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re: Rebranding to AAAMediation.

Here in the USA, most of the general public will associate AAA with the American Automobile Association, not ADR. This could pose a branding problem for AAA.

Anonymous said...

The rebranding challenge would be even greater if the AAA was offering med-arb. Then it would become something like "American Arbitration Association Mediation-Arbitration"! In seriousness, the major issues for med-arb, in my view, are to the impartiality of the third person 'neutral' and to the clients' perception of that impartiality.