Hi All,
A bit late for this blog. It's nearly mid semester and things are heating up (assignments and life).
Anyhow, first thing after I got home, got into my facebook, and received a message in my FB inbox from MMSS which is my uni's marketing student society.
The message was about this McDonald's which was just opened its new store near our university (East Malvern). One of my friend actually updated her blog about its grand opening
Well, that's not the point, the point is that I followed the link in the message and came across this facebook Fanpage "The Pickle Club" that McDonald's just launched. And what the Pickle Club does is, they posted awesome deals on their page regularly or so and students who saw the deal can visit certain stores (this one is only for East Malvern, for now) and say the keywords and then you'll get the deal!!! but the deal is it's "One per customer per day."
Here are some of the examples of deals that were offered.
Source: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pickle-Club/147689095242742?v=wall&ref=ts
There was also a link from the info tab on their facebook page, so I checked it out.
It was http://www.kellycogroup.com.au/ and this page actually showed me what this Pickle Club idea is about. They were the company who own several McDonald's stores in Melbourne's suburban area. And they created the company so they can give back the community, for example hiring staffs in the area, give what they get to charity in the form of donations or sponsorships and so on.
What do you think?
The first time I saw it, I was like,,,hmmmm??
Do you think this will make more people go to East Malvern McDonald's and even though they didn't get the deal first, would they still buy something from there.
Or
Do you think people won't bother trying to get the deal first at all.
Well, from my point of view, I'd want to try to be the first to get the deal sometime, you know....just for fun!
But in terms of marketing, I like it, I like the idea that they are making the use of social media, and also they are giving what they get back to the community or donate to charity. They not only use facebook though, they also have Twitter account that people can follow and get updates on great deals everyday.
Some of other businesses actually do this too, but mostly what I received are more formal deals which come in the form of e-mail. f=For example, Myer send me e-mail everytime there's a sale, Borders sometimes send me discount vouchers as well as Dominos Pizza.
Do you look at the deals you received from several businesses and have you ever used them? I tried Borders once, it was 5% discount on a book, and yea, simple as!
Anyhow, thanks MMSS for the message, I'd have to try it sometime.
P.S. have a great rest of the week, next blog coming soon!
This is a really interesting idea, mostly because how often to do you see a highly regulated brand, particularly a franchise get away with something like this?
ReplyDeleteI think the page needs to look a little more legitimate, but it's a neat idea that will probably gain some followers.
I like the way they use social media to give out ridiculous promotions, nice...
ReplyDeleteI should try out sometimes
That's really cool!! I should try out too!!
ReplyDelete@Zac, agree as well that the page need some improvement, but again, very nice idea from them : )
ReplyDeleteThx all for the comments, try it out sometime! : )
OMG! I should see this earlier! being busy since last week... I'll definitely try it out sometimes.. hope I be the lucky one lol ;)
ReplyDeletethanks R. :]
I think it could possibly destroy the brand.
ReplyDeleteFrom having this unofficial page and the character of the pickles, the pros may not worth the cons; and McDonald should rather promote its new store using creativity (e.g. viral marketing with Monash Caulfield students) rather than discount and special offer in this way.
However McDonald is still McDonald.
People will still go there; but did it miss an opportunity to elevate itself to another level in the perception of this suberb?