Carl's Jr. Apparently Unaware That People Share Discount Coupons Online
from the welcome-to-the-internet dept
I remember a decade or so ago stories of online coupon offerings where companies would use a single coupon code, and not realize that people would share it with tons of others. However, those types of promotions went away after companies started using unique codes for promotions to make sure people couldn't share them too widely. Apparently, however, the folks who work for marketing at Carl's Jr. were unaware of how news of deals spread online. They offered up a promotion at a basketball game, where certain attendees were texted a code to download a coupon for a free burger. However, all attendees were given the same code... which was quickly leaked online and Carl's Jr. was forced to cancel the promotion after a lot more people than expected started to show up with the coupon. It's hard to believe that no one involved in the promotion had any idea that this would happen.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: coupons, online, sharing
Companies: carl's jr.
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Speaking of bad promotion ideas...
Small fries were just over a buck. Meaning small fries and an Angus burger were just over a buck. Most restaurants were forced to give out free double burgers once the Angus ran out. It was beautiful.
It's hard to imagine how Harvey's and Carl's Jr. could have hit a net benefit from either of these marketing campaigns, yet I bet all the marketers at HQ are still behind their desks (or gone for unrelated reasons.)
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Re: Speaking of bad promotion ideas...
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For a while, they rebranded some of the Illinois Hardee's to Carl's Jr. but they changed them back.
I don't live near one any more but I miss the hot ham & cheese sandwiches. Tasted great, especially if they'd been in the bin for a while.
My strongest memory of them, though, was walking in and being greeted with, not "Welcome, may I take your order?" or "can I help you?" but "If you want chicken, you's gonna hafta wait." (They were selling fried chicken at the time, I don't know if they still do.) Ack!
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WTF?
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I'm not sure how many basketball attendees would've been given the code, however I'm guessing the number of people who did (or would have) used the coupon severely surpassed their predicted "manageable" short term loss; especially if, as nothing indicates otherwise, the coupon codes could be re-used multiple times. And so the decision to stop taking the coupons.
Verifying who was or was not at a basketball game probably would not have been worth the resources either for such a one of a kind promotion.
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I read the article and it mentioned honoring the coupons of those that could prove they deserved it, but why not offer everyone else at least SOMETHING? $1 off? Free Drink?
Anything to stop people from getting pissed and just leaving. I'm sure some would still be unhappy, but they should know they were trying to cheat the system.
Shame on Carl's Jr. for being ignorant, but they could have played their cards much better.
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Newbie Mistake
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Harvey's vs Hardee's
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I believe it.
It costs more money to print individual codes. They probably didn't want to spend the money. I'm willing to wager there's a sad IT worker at CKE who'll take the brunt of blame.
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The Internet Strikes Again
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chegg coupon
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