Category Archives: Offer

$100 Fine for Bad Customer Service

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PublicidadI’ve written about good customer service in the past, highlighting my excellent experience with L.L. Bean. I’ve postulated that quality customer service is actually free, because the incremental sales more than make up for “excessive” talk time and refunds/credits granted by your customer service representatives.

Here’s a trivially-observed example of what lousy customer service will cost you.  In this example, from Verizon, it’s a minimum of $100.

The saga unfolds after the break. Continue reading →

Can Marketing Cure What Ails You?

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Eye Protection
A recent article in the New York Times got me thinking about the psychology of marketing again, and how some basic principles are used or under-used in social media marketing.

“Warning: Habits May Be Good for You” explores how an anthropologist turned to marketing experts from CPG companies like Procter & Gamble to help increase the incidence of hand-washing with soap after using the toilet in the nation of Ghana to improve the health of children.  Obviously, this was an important effort and I was encouraged to see marketing practitioners as instrumental in helping achieve success in this endeavor.

As I was reading the article, it struck me that many of the techniques used are found in Robert B. Cialdini‘s classic Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. I’d lent out my copy a few years ago and, thankfully, had to buy a new version which includes an epilogue written by Dr. Cialdini in 2007.  My re-read then triggered a few thoughts on social media.

If the social media crowd can stop navel-gazing long enough to do some quick research and scientific work, boy will money be made. [More after the jump.]

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An offer you can't refuse

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1957 Dodge CoronetHow can you tell if an offer is good, i.e., is a strong consumer offer that makes money?

The answer is when the organization making the offer continues to use the offer.  The case in point is Chrysler’s “Let’s Refuel America” $2.99/gallon gasoline offer, which I wrote about recently.

The offer was supposed to expire in early June, but based on early results–including 25% more web traffic and a 34% increase in Internet leads–the promotion has been extended through July 7th.

Apparently Chrysler has re-crunched the numbers and found the financial results worth continuing making what’s turned out to be a very strong offer.  This is good news for the car buyer looking for a deal, the dealers who like the floor traffic and is good for Chrysler, as far as “moving the metal” goes.  (Overall, though, Chrysler is still in trouble.)

The takeaway is that Chrysler’s promotion has, once again, proven the old direct response maxim: If you want to dramatically increase your response, dramatically increase your offer.

When was the last time you looked at your offer? How might you reallocate your offer cost to create a more exciting offer that’s a true consumer benefit?
Creative Commons License photo credit: epicharmus

Make your mantra "make it easy"

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Getting up close with my dinnerGuy Kawasaki, who is one of my favorite regular blog reads and speakers, is the author of The Art of the Start, which is a quick and worthwhile read for anybody thinking about starting up their own company.

One of the 10 things you should do, according to his book, is “Make Mantra.” I absolutely loved this, because it accurately describes what all truly innovative companies are doing and, more tellingly, what a lot of big companies are not doing.

I think that Papa John’s has “Made Mantra” with their focus on making it easy for the customer to order.  They’ve sold over $1 billion of pizza via their online ordering tools.  According to the CNN article, it’s just the start of likely dozens of new ways a Papa John’s customer can order.

Now that’s a mantra–make it easy to order.

So what are you doing to make it easy for your customer to buy more of your products?  Or more often? Or more efficiently?

Guy Kawasaki talking about “Make Mantra” is below.

Creative Commons License photo credit: ronnie44052

Free samples!

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SamplingAre you using sampling in your marketing efforts?  Ad Age had a quick article on some of the sampling efforts being undertaken by major marketers this summer.

What’s old is new again.  Is it better to hit a prospect with 3 to 5 impressions and tell them about your product or is it better to put the product in their mouth or on their skin and show them how great it is?

If you think about it, the Web 2.0 technique of giving away your entire product dates back to the days of the local shopkeeper.  

Back in the day, the general store owner would give you a taste of what was in the barrel to get you to purchase the product.  Now, digital products and services providers allow you to use virtually all of their services free of charge, with the hope that you’ll come back repeatedly and purchase the premium (paid) product or generate pageviews to generate advertising revenue.

Sampling’s an old marketing technique, but it’s taken hold in Web 2.0 products and, with the advent of more granular tracking tools, is becoming more popular with traditional CPG.

As Winston Churchill once said, “The further back I look, the further forward I can see.”  What other “old” marketing techniques can you think of that can be resurrected in your marketing efforts?

Now that's an offer!

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gas-pump-closeup-comp.jpgChrysler’s guaranteeing gas for your new vehicle will stay under $2.99/gallon for the next three years.

Talk about a great offer that addresses a couple of problems:

  1. Chrysler has too many large vehicles to sell, with lousy gas mileage.
  2. Gas at $3.00+/gallon is putting a crimp in the budgets of potential buyers, slowing down overall sales.

Rather than go the traditional route of putting cash on the hood of the trucks, in the form of rebates and/or lower interest rates, Chrysler whipped out the calculator. It doesn’t really matter where the “offer cost” goes from a P&L perspective (neglecting any GAAP requirements for the moment), but it does matter from the consumer’s psyche.

The glow of a low price on a 12 mpg truck fades pretty quickly when faced with $3 or $5 gas. Now the customer can at least put a cap on how much they’ll spend for gas over the next few years and take that worry out of the purchase equation.

Summary and takeaways

  1. Think creatively when developing incentives. Don’t restrict yourself to the traditional BOGO, “X% off”, “FREE X with purchase” offers. The more complex the purchase equation, such as a motor vehicle purchase, the more opportunities you have to create interesting offers.
  2. Use your calculator. Once you’ve got that great idea, make sure you do the math carefully. In the case of Chrysler’s offer, it could get expensive if gas rockets to $8/gallon. On the other hand, if it drops to $2, this could be one of the best offers of all time. (Assuming it helps sales.)

ProFlowers email of the day–how to make a strong offer

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Every once in a while, I get a great email from one of the many companies I do business with online. Today’s great email is from ProFlowers and contains both an outstanding offer and some great strategic thinking.

Unbeknownst to me, ProFlowers suffered from some serious downtime yesterday. And with it getting close to Valentine’s Day ordering season, that’s a huge problem. The good news is that their website is fixed.

The better news is that I’m saving 15% off my wife’s Valentine’s Day flowers! Continue reading →