What one hand giveth, both hands taketh away

The greatest retail brand in India has declared war against high prices, with a sales promotion that gives 20% off on foodstuff, or, sa their ad says, on all daily essentials.

The catch?

“Offer valid on purchase of a minimum of Rs 400 worth of Apparel, Furniture & household items at Big Bazaar.”

And, “The amount of your daily essential's bill that is eligible for discount is equal to the amount you have spent on apparel, furniture and household items.”

And, “Offer vaid only at Food Bazaar stores located within Big Bazaar.”

And, “Both the purchases have to be made on the same day to avail of this offer.”

And, “Quantity restrictions apply, in cases of certain food items.”

There are some more, but the catch is pretty clear. This is essentially a 20% off on their hopeless apparel, furniture and household goods, transferred to the food bill. It's not a sales promotion on food at all!

So why do it in such a convoluted way?

By the way, the minimum purchase required was Rs 750 last weekend.

What's worse, the same store is running a furniture sale, with '21% to 51% off on entire range of furniture.'

Call to enjoy

If we want data from a sales promotion form we have to enter it from a filled form. This takes time and can lead to errors. Also, all participants may not fill their forms entirely. What can be a way out? What if we asked participants to fill the form online, after which their coupon (number) will be emailed. Or fill it over the phone (single entry, by the tele-operator) after which the coupon number will be SMSed?

What happens to the contest SMS

We often wonder what TV programmes do with the literally hundreds of thousands of SMSs they get in response to their inane contests.

Do they call a random sample of senders to research what sort of people watch the show and what do they like in it?

Do they pass on such research as profiles of the show’s audience to advertisers? (Can the SMS senders be called representative of the show’s audience?)

Do advertisers hand the unsuspecting SMS senders’ numbers to tele-callers as ‘leads’? Why does every programme have a contest?

Can someone help us with these questions?

Is a gift voucher better than a gift as a promotional or DM offer?

There are at least two things in favour of gift vouchers (‘coupons’, if you like):
1. It leaves the choosing to the customer
2. It allows you to stretch your budget because everyone won’t redeem. Let’s say your budget is Rs 500 per conversion, and experience or testing tells you that only half of coupons will get redeemed. That means you can offer gift vouchers of Rs 1,000 face value (not Rs 500), yet stay within budget. For every two conversions you’d have a single redemption, so the fulfilment cost per conversion will be Rs 1000 ¸ 2 = Rs 500.

Had you offered a gift, you’d have to fulfil for everyone, and restrict yourself to something that cost Rs 500 – actually less, because the fulfilment cost would have to come from the same budget. Besides you’d have to take on the fulfilment headache.

This cannot, of course, be a ‘rule of the thumb’. Any comments?