By Published On: October 24, 2018

MoviePass – one movie a day for just $7.95 a month

Pay Your Age – A special one-day promotion to Build a Bear and pay your age

Amazon Prime Day – everything you ever wanted on sale for 36 hours

 

WOW! What a deal! Or is it?

In recent months, these companies as well as others, have over-promised and under-delivered. How did it happen? What does it mean for their brand? And how might it affect customer loyalty? I think the answer is “It depends.” Let’s take a look.

MoviePass: Maybe you’ve never even heard of them. It’s been just a little over 12 months since MoviePass revolutionized the movie industry by offering a subscription service for a nominal price for one movie a day.  One year later they’re having to drastically rework the program and may be on the verge of bankruptcy. Odds are MoviePass isn’t going to be around long enough to recover. But that doesn’t mean subscription movie services are going away. AMC created their own marketing promotion based on a more solid sales revenue plan. Three movies a month for $19.95. And they’re standing by waiting to scoop up all those disenchanted MoviePass users.

Build a Bear: Cutest company ever, right? And even on a slow day, their stores are filled with little children looking for a new best friend.  Their promotion was to pay as little as $1 for a stuffed animal which can cost up to $25. After all, their revenue is in the clothes and accessories, not the “bear.” Many locations had to shut down due to overwhelming response and safety concerns. Cue the tears. On the plus side, they immediately offered customers online vouchers as compensation. But at this time, reviews are mixed. Some social media posters were surprised that such a solid company would undercut their price so drastically and risk losing brand value. Others thought it was a good idea and the company couldn’t possibly have known how big a success it would be. Maybe not – but sounds like it would have been a good opportunity for a small market test before unleashing it nationally. Given the audience here is 12 and under, odds are good that they’ll be just fine. Those bears need clothes and there’s only one place to get ‘em.

Amazon Prime Day: Within minutes of the 2018 Prime Day launch, Amazon’s web site was experiencing glitches resulting in customers not being able to access the deals or being served up an Amazon “Sorry Dog”. First of all, Amazon is just fine, thank you for asking. Prime day was a massive success – resulting in the biggest shopping day ever for the company. And even with all of the web issues, the biggest takeaway was the dogs! “They’re so cute!” The lesson here – have a solid marketing plan in place for when things go wrong. And if you can, use a dog.

Did you participate in any of these promotions? What was your experience? We’d love to hear from you.

About the Author: Carol Wahl

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