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Can I bribe you to be my brand fan?

Eric Bowe — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:07:09 +0000

On the first Monday of March I received an email from Nabisco. The email was an invitation to become a fan of Nabisco Cookies on facebook. Actually it was more than an invitation — it was a fan bribe. Nabisco is offering free cookies, sort of, if I become a fan. The email made me wonder how well bribes work. Secondly, if someone does join based on a bribe, how much of a fan of the brand are they?

Nabisco is not the first (nor last) brand to incentivize people to join their fan page. Different brand stimuli have been used by Outback, Babies’R'Us, and Sears just to name a few. Outback offered a free Bloomin’ Onion, while Babies’R'Us gave fans a $5 gift card. Sears like Nabisco offers coupons to new fans.

Nabisco’s offer is not really free (note the asterisk). The deal is fans can download a coupon on the first Monday of every month (limit 500,000 coupons per month) throughout 2010. The coupon is good for a free package of Chips Ahoy when you purchase one package of Chips Ahoy and a gallon of milk.

So, do incentives work to build fan bases? Sure. More the promise of saving money will motivate some people to fan a page. Nabisco has a healthy 262,000 fan base on their facebook page. My guess is the fan base will probably grow throughout 2010, especially if they continue to promote “free cookies”.

The second question is what type of fan does a brand attract with incentives? I don’t know how many fans of the Nabisco Cookies page came for love of brand or love of free cookies. However, there is some insight by reviewing the page content. In reviewing the past 24 hours there was over 30 postings. Fan postings are primarily shout outs to their love of cookies.

J Blair: we love cookies Yesterday at 4:57pm
L Goodman: we are all cookie monster in this house:)Yesterday at 4:56pm
V Coffey: MMMMMMMM COOKIES!!!! Me love cookies!! Yesterday at 4:38pm
A Orr: Nabisco cookies and milk?! hummmmmmmm Yesterday at 3:13pm

Not every post was for the love of cookies. There was some banter about the coupon promotion. On the discussion page there seems to be a little angst around the use of the coupon.

J. Mowen: Went to the store this morning and tried to use my coupon. I admit I should have read the date ahead, but what kind of coupon is only good for three days!!!! Leave it to a huge corporation like this to put such great limitations on the deal! (Yesterday at 10:13am)
J. Moore:no stupid coupon nabisco you suck (March 8 at 1:21pm)
B. Dyer: NO COUPON. WHAT IS WRONG WITH NABISCO? MUST BE RUN BY A MALE (Tue at 6:07pm)
D. Cooley:We have two major grocery chains in St. Louis/St. Charles Missouri. They both rejected my coupon because they SAY, it is not posted in the stores, that they reject all internet coupons for free items or even cents off! I talked with the store managers and they say they were not told by Nabisco they were having a promotion, and they would not accept a free item internet coupon!!! Thanks for a good idea, but it turned out to be useless to me! (March 1 at 6:21pm)

For some fans they are more a fan of the coupon than for the brand, which is not a surprise. As the coupons wane over time or if Nabisco does not fix the glitches in the promotion, these fans will lie passive or de-fan the brand.

Biggby offers a cool way to weather a snowstorm

Eric Bowe — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:01:20 +0000

Last night I had a 2-hour commute home due to a snowstorm that blasted a lot of the Midwest. Not pleasant. However, I received a pleasant surprise in my email when I got home. An email from Biggby Coffee understood my snowy plight and offered some comfort:

According to the weather gurus, they are calling from some pretty crazy snow out there! It is beautiful to look at!! BIGGBY COFFEE wants to help you combat the cold weather and B warm, use this coupon and enjoy the snow days on Friday and Saturday! It’s our snow gift to you.

The email had a coupon for a free hot chocolate with the purchase of a grande beverage (not a bad idea since I plan on taking my kids sledding this weekend). An email synched up with the pending storm is clever, stands out, and the coupon is useful for many. Although the email by itself is not a grand strategy, sometimes the little “cool” things stand out, differentiate our brand, and are worth talking about.

A new economic low: A sweepstakes for a $4 Coupon

Eric Bowe — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:35:13 +0000

When I opened an email from Entenmann’s today, I did a double take. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Entenmann’s had a one day sweepstakes for a $4 coupon. That’s right, a $4 coupon (actually 250 $4 coupons to be exact). To enter you need to register at Entenmann’s 4 You by midnight tonight, Nov 19th.

Hey, I realize the economy is bad. Living in the Detroit Area I am reminded of it every day. However, this is sweepstakes is a bit over the top for several reasons. I thought initially the sweepstakes was a joke. In my household we purchase Entenmann’s bakery products on a regular basis. To my knowledge they cost about $4, so why not just give away free products (of course then it is a sweepstakes to win a box of donuts — I don’t know which prize sounds worse).

Entenmann’s sweepstakes entry includes the typical information: Name, Address, and email. You could draw the conclusion that Entenmann’s is trying to build their customer database at $4 a pop. But they are more clever. They are actually building their customer database for a chance to win $4 a pop. Nice, for the marketer that is. From a customer perspective the value proposition is hardly worth it. It makes me wonder how many people are willing to give up their personal info for this minimal (chance) value.