Never a Lack of Ideas

I Scream for Ice Cream To launch its new line of coffee-flavored ice cream, Starbucks is running a promotion through July 19th in which Facebook users can give a free pint of ice cream to one of their friends. At the top of every hour, Starbucks will give out 800 coupons for free ice cream via a Facebook application at http://apps.facebook.com/starbucksicecream . Facebook users cannot print a free ice cream coupon for themselves – they must send it to a friend. Since the free ice cream coupons are gone within seconds after the start of each hour, Starbucks offers a coupon for $1.00 off of a pint of their new ice cream to people who do not grab a free pint for their friends. This way, nobody is left out of the promotion. Learning From KFC’s Mistakes Starbucks made three notable improvements to the Kentucky Grilled Chicken debacle two months ago: Never underestimate the power of free food. The KGC promotion prompted millions of people to print off coupons for a free meal. Starbucks is...

Recap By now, you’ve probably heard about the KFC coupon promotion for a free meal of new Kentucky Grilled Chicken (KGC) that Oprah gave out through her website a few weeks ago. KFC severely underestimated the power of both Oprah and a free meal, and the coupon promotion backfired for the restaurant chain. Read about it in my first post about the KFC coupon . A Second Chance I decided to give Kentucky Grilled Chicken another chance. So, my co-worker and I headed back to the only KFC in Chicago’s Loop for lunch last week. We brought with us a new coupon that offered a free KGC meal if we purchased an equivalent one. We were shocked by what we saw on the store’s door when we arrived to the restaurant. The KFC restaurant has been closed indefinitely by the Cook County Sheriff’s office. (Check out the sign posted on the door in the picture on the right.) Unbelievable! According to some gentlemen standing outside the restaurant who had been working on a construction site nearby, the KFC res...

A Great Word of Mouth Marketing Campaign On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Kentucky Fried Chicken offered a coupon that was good for two free pieces of their new “Kentucky Grilled Chicken,” two free sides, and a free biscuit. The coupon had to be printed from a new microsite – www.unthinKFC.com between 9:00 a.m on May 5th and 11:59 p.m. on May 6th, but the coupon can be redeemed anytime from May 5th through the 19th. This promotion was announced on Oprah Winfrey’s show on May 5th, and it received a ton of immediate publicity. I heard about it via word of mouth from a co-worker. Needless to say, once Oprah got involved, word spread like wildfire. Oprah’s website even had a news story on the promotion and a link to the microsite. Clearly, KFC did a tremendous job generating publicity and word of mouth for this promotion. Failed Execution Along with several of my co-workers, I printed the coupon out on Tuesday. I made plans with a friend at work to walk to the only KFC store in the...