Marketing Weasel

Laughing Cow or Laughing Stock?

Some crazy marketing person over at the Laughing Cow has ordered 300,000 bumper stickers. Apparently there is some sort of cheese shortage and they had nothing to do, so they came up with this promotion. They make excellent cheese, but I'm not sure about this idea.

Of course I ordered one -- it's free and I'm a sucker for anything that doesn't require a later sacrifice to the credit card gods.

Please let me know if you see one of these on a car. I can't believe that anyone will put one of these on their ride.

How Not To Handle A PR Crisis

Steve Rubell at the Micropersuasion PR blog is covering a major crisis at Kryptonite Lock. Seems their suppposedly unbreakable locks can be broken with a cheap pen. Oops.

So how do they handle the mounting crisis? Step up to the plate and tell everyone they can trade in their $100 locks for free replacement? That a fix will be ready in 2 weeks? Send out a warning to their customers? Uh, no.

Engadget is running Kryptonite's response, which includes a "not sure" on the loss coverage they use a reason to charge so much for their locks. These guys need to get a clue -- there are several different companies that are looking for our hard-earned money in exchange for some protection for our wheels.

Also of note is the fact that this story started on the blogs and quickly moved to the mainstream press. It's critical for companies to follow the blogs (or pay the price).

When Promotions Go Too Well

Circuit City launched their new Web site and sent out a ton of e-mails with a sweepstakes promo code. Sounds like a great idea, eh? Well, something went wrong, and when you visit their site to check your prize code, you get this message:

Due to an overwhelming response to our sweepstakes, we are currently having technical difficulties with our entry forms. We're working to correct the problem, and we're sorry for the inconvenience.

Please try to enter again tomorrow. And while you're here, check out the rest of our site and see all the new, easy ways to shop.

Looks like this promo was a bit more popular than they expected, eh? The bad news about this situation is that you piss off a bunch of people, but the good news is that they were prepared enough to post this message, instead of an error (or worse, no feedback). Reminds me of my Boy Scout days.... Somebody moved quickly at Circuit City.