The dispute is over a small amount – about $220.

The reptile brain doesn’t have complex emotions. It thinks in simple terms: fight or flight.

My reptile brain wants to fight. Maybe post a video of their shoddy customer service practices to YouTube, register a yourcompanysucks.com domain, and generally bitch and moan so loudly that their senior management gets headaches.  I guarantee I can create a headache that costs far more than $220 with just a few hours of reptile effort.

But I won’t.  At least not yet.

Why not yet? We’ll, maybe I can turn them into a customer for BrandProtect (one of my clients) and it wouldn’t be good if I slammed them publicly.  And also because it just too easy to make myself a nuisance. With the power of the Internet, it is possible for one person to tell his story to thousands of people.

This power illustrates just how effective a single “guerrilla” can be in the face of a corporate superpower.

In the past, given a superpower brand’s supremacy in marketing, customer service, public relations and legal support, few rational opponents would deliberately seek a face-to-face confrontation.  It was almost always a loosing battle.

But today, any idiot, including myself, can resort to asymmetric, or David-and-Goliath, strategies. I may not win the battle but I can make myself a nuisance or even bloody the nose of a superbrand by using some extremely affordable weapons such as GoDaddy.com (less than $10 to register a yourcompanysucks.com domain), Twitter, a blog, and the Flip (a hi-def video camera that costs less than $100).

Although it would only take one letter from a superbrand to make me cease and desist, the cost of just the attorney writing that letter is already way more than the $200 in dispute. Now matter how simple the cease and desist, escalation from the superbrand would be costly.

Superbrands are also seeing public relations backlash from stepping on bloggers and vocal complainers. In effect, a legal victory can still equal a PR defeat

So what should the superbrands do to protect against the asymmetric customer with a chip on his shoulder? Should I find someone to help me make a video about this company’s poor customer service? What would you do?

I am Mrs.Ruth Madoff, wife of Bernard Madoff.

I am actually going through some kind of difficult time with my family right now, as my husband is at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York City.

My husband Sentencing is scheduled for June 16, 2009 and he is likely to face a maximum sentence of 150 years in prison and $170 billion in restitution, so there is need for me to move out allot of my personal funds and personal belongings around the world , particularly  from outside America, but i need somebody to trust now, because i cannot receive funds here in America right now.

I would need your help in acquiring some properties and keeping some large cash amount for me. but first i would  prefer to chat with you either on yahoo chat or Skype. if you are not comfortable with yahoo then write me,so we can communicate via email.

This is very urgent, i would have to entrust a large amount of money into your hands and some personal valuables. But this would have to be very confidential, just between me and you, because the press are after me and my husband name all over the headlines, because of his Wall street business.

Anyway! don’t be scared about the risk, it is a very safe deal i can assure you of your confidentiality.

Yours Sincerely

Mrs. Ruth Alpern Madoff