Almost Got It Right

Promotional giveaways are a great idea. But here's a giveaway that doesn't quite get it right.

This is an on-box promo that was run by a cereal company. and it hits several good notes. But it also missed the mark in some "small" areas. It's all in the small print.

Giving away grocery gift cards is a good fit for a cereal company. Everybody loves to save money on groceries. I also applaud that they only offered this promo on their healthy cereal brands. And look how happy Snap, Crackle and Pop are!

While saving $5 isn't a huge deal, it's free money. I think this box of cereal cost about $7. So the "cost-to-freebie ratio" seemed pretty good.

But that's where this promo starts to fall flat, like a snap that has neither crackled, nor popped.

We ate our way through this entire box of cereal before I paid any attention to the small print. Do you see that small writing above "Get A Grocery Card"? It tells you that in order to get your $5 grocery card, you must buy TWO boxes of cereal. That in itself is not terrible, because it's a fairly common ploy that companies use to get you to buy more than one of their products. And in hindsight, it even made some sense, because the original "cost-to-freebie ratio" seemed a little too good. So, I set that box aside and went to the grocery store to buy a second box of cereal.

It was not until I got home with the second box that I noticed the EXTRA SMALL PRINT. Do you see that tiny lettering under the big number "5"? It tells you that both boxes must be purchased on the same receipt.

And that, Mr. Crackle, is a marketing no-no.

Original premise: Give customer $5. Make customer happy.

Eventual result: Customer makes extra trip, spends more money, and gets zero. Customer is annoyed.

It's true that you should always read the small print, and I did not. But this cereal company should reconsider just how small their small print is. If your promotion is going to annoy your customers. you should re-think why you're running a promotion in the first place.

Photo credit Joe Middleton