Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Recently Guns n' Roses delivered their long-awaited album, Chinese Democracy (I won't go into the background story of why this album release was such a big deal). Earlier this year Dr. Pepper (the soft drink company) announced that if this album were to come out at any point in 2008, all of America would get a free Dr. Pepper. Very bold and fun marketing!
I'm not sure if they were poking fun at Axl Rose or whether they truly believed this album would see the light of day but one thing is for sure - when it came time to live up to its promise, Dr. Pepper failed miserably. You see, when it came time for people to claim their free can of soda, Dr. Pepper's website was inaccessible as the amount of traffic crashed their web server(s). Additionally, the 800# they provided was on a permanent 'busy signal' meaning that most consumers had absolutely no way of requesting their free Dr. Pepper.
Dr. Pepper extended the deadline a bit but most people were still left out in the cold as their website was still not functioning properly and the 800 # still on a permanent 'busy signal.' Now the period in which to take advantage of this offer is over and, sadly, most people who wanted their free Dr. Pepper are out of luck.
Shame on Dr. Pepper for not being prepared. Shame on Dr. Pepper for not living up to it promise. Even if they decide to re-open the offer period due to media and legal pressure, it still won't change the fact that they didn't do what was obviously the right thing to do in the first place. For me, Dr. Pepper has a severely tarnished brand image and I know a lot of other consumers feel the same way.
The moral of the story here: Dare to be bold and creative with your marketing, but be prepared to deliver the goods.
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