Closing the “Gap” in Social Promotions
I admit it, I am a smart phone newbie. According to my teenager, my old phone was from somewhere in the Neolithic age – you know 3 taps to get the letter “o” in a text. So I joined the millennium with some trepidation – as I experimented with geo-location applications.
My first experience was the new “Facebook Places” mobile application. Similar to Foursquare and Gowalla, users ‘check in’ on their phone when they arrive at a destination to let their friends know where they are, as well as take advantage of special deals the location may be offering. The Gap was one of the first major retailers to experiment with FB Places, offering free jeans to 10,000 customers to check into their store using the app on Nov. 5th. After so much bad press, I was rooting for a win for the beleaguered brand. I like Gap merchandise, and now I was armed with a smart phone, and hey – we all need pants.
In this social world, I heard about Gap’s promotion in a traditional way, by reading about it in an emailed newsletter. My first step was to download the app, which took several tries, probably because I was among 10,000 trying to do the same thing.
So Gap’s Free Jeans Giveaway Event comes, and I clearly wasn’t alone in my quest. On my way to the closest Gap, I got a call – the jeans were gone already. This was seven minutes after they opened.
Ok – I press on; to what I expect to be the more crowded mall. Upon arriving at a different Gap, the store seemed pretty empty. I fumbled with my phone to check in, and the sales associate sees me and says, “Oh, yeah, people are having trouble with that… must be the cement or something. But here you go,” and she hands me a coupon for free jeans. Simple as that. Or not so simple. She points me to the jeans that apply – they don’t have my size. I ask if there are any more in the back, she checks. I’m thinking I’ll end up driving around town to get them (time I don’t have), but the manager appears and says I can have a pair that is valued at $10 more in my size instead, no problem. They still had about 10 more coupons to give away when I left, almost an hour after they opened.
Some bumps in the road are expected with the adoption and application of any technology, but as a successful focus group of one, here’s my take on what Gap did right.
- Offered a social promotion of value – jeans are fairly high ticket item and symbolic of the Gap brand. 10,000 Gap jean ambassadors, right before the holiday season, are a valuable marketing asset
- Prepared their employees – a week earlier, Brueggers Bagelry emailed around a coupon for 6 free bagels, and by lunch they were sold out all over town. One weary employee was apologetically stamping make-goods while bemoaning the fact that they were unprepared. The Gap associates told me they had been notified weeks ago, that corporate-to-store communications were really detailed and informative – no surprises here.
- Offered a consolation prize – 10,000 happy customers is great, 100,000 unhappy ones is bad. A coworker recently participated in Lowes’ Facebook sneak peak event for Black Friday deals, 100 Kitchen Aid mixers at 90% off. That left 2600 participants with nothing more than aggravation, as noted on their wall, and a visible blunder to more than 200,000 Lowe’s FB fans. In Gap’s case, if the free jeans coupons were gone – anyone who checked in via Facebook Places received an offer of 40% off any item in the store. That’s not half bad for a non-winner.
- Customer Service is still king – to get as far as I did, and leave without the jeans, would have been more sour than sweet. My Gap manager felt empowered to make decisions that built my brand experience.
- New technology is exciting, but traditional media is not dead – traditional PR outlets covered the Gap promotion and drew my attention. The most successful marketing leverages the best of all media options. Organizations that make good use of relevance, urgency and value will be welcome in my email stream. And don’t discount good old fashioned media like radio and television, which are among the first to plant seeds that I then recognize in other social outlets
As for the future of Facebook Places, it remains to be seen if consumers are as excited about the possibilities as we marketers are. Despite the fact I sit here blogging in my new jeans, I am not quite programmed yet to always check the location or even the “Coupon” app on my phone when I enter a store. But hey – at the rate my son wears through the knees in his pants, it could be a habit in the making. Kind of like remembering to bring those recyclable bags into the grocery store, not just carried around in my trunk.
