'The Promotional Pundit:' Old September 25, 2008 Online Coupon Post Removed From the Fresh & Easy Company Marketing Blog; See My Past Columns

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market director of marketing Simon Uwins or one of the grocery chain's marketing staffers has removed the September 25, 2008 post about the grocer's first online coupon from the company marketing Blog as I suggested in my recent columns should be done.

Read my past columns on the topic at the links below to learn what I wrote about the issue:

>October 10, 2008: 'The Promotional Pundit': Keeping the Marketing and Promotional Eye On the Ball; Fixing A Promotional Fiasco Fresh & Easy Isn't Even Aware Of

>October12, 2008: 'The Promotional Pundit:' More On the Online Coupon Fiasco: Tesco Fresh & Easy's Marketing Department to Launch A New Online Coupon Early Next Week

>October 13, 2008: 'The Promotional Pundit': Tesco Fresh & Easy Launches New $6-off Online Coupon Today; Post on Corp. Marketing Blog Remains -- Adding Insult to Injury

The old, September 25 post remained on the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog until at least late last week.

The Promotional Pundit was alerted by a regular reader of the column yesterday that it had been removed.

It's good to see somebody at Fresh & Easy agreed with the Promotional Pundit and a number of Fresh & Easy Buzz readers who emailed me about the issue. Even more so, it's good the retailer is willing to self-correct.

Their were a number of readers of the Fresh & Easy marketing Blog who made comments on the Blog's September 25 post about being disappointed about not being able to get their online coupon when they clicked the link on the post, as you can read about and view in my previous columns linked above. When the readers/consumers clicked the link to go to the page where the coupon was supposed to be located, they were greeted with a message telling them the coupon had expired -- but suggesting they should go to their nearest Fresh & Easy market for great in-store low prices. Of course, since they were invited to obtain a coupon so they could enjoy "lower" prices, that wasn't a very pleasing solution to them.

As I wrote about in this October 13 column, "'The Promotional Pundit': Tesco Fresh & Easy Launches New $6-off Online Coupon Today; Post on Corp. Marketing Blog Remains -- Adding Insult to Injury," Fresh & Easy issued a new online coupon on October 13. That online coupon is being promoted on the homepage of the freshandeasy.com Web site. It isn't being promoted at all at present on Mr. Uwins' Fresh & Easy company marketing Blog. No new post regarding the new coupon replaced the September 25 post which I suggested needed to be removed -- and now has been removed from the Fresh & Easy company marketing Blog.

Even though the seven readers of the Fresh & Easy marketing Blog won't get an answer from Mr. Uwins or anybody else at Fresh & Easy to their comments about not being able to obtain their online coupon, at least by removing the post no further damage will be done from a marketing, branding and customer relations standpoint to Fresh & Easy.

That's the best thing a marketer can do in such a situation, which is why the Promotional Pundit suggested it needed to be done.

The comments from the seven consumers should have each been answered on the September 25 Blog post first though, telling each one about the new $6-off purchases of $30 or more online coupon, and providing the link to it on the homepage of the freshandeasy.com Web site. That would have been good customer service.

If a retailer uses a Blog as a marketing tool, it automatically becomes an interactive customer service tool as well. As a result, it is incumbent on the retailer to them answer readers comments -- positive or negative -- just like that retailer expects store-level employees to respond to questions from customers in-store. The Blog is in many ways merely an electronic extension of a physical storefront after all.

However, since the September 25 post is now gone (a positive event), it's a moot point in terms of responding to the comments from the readers/consumers. At least by removing the old post Fresh & Easy's marketing department is correcting a mistake, which I congratulate them for doing.

The first rule of marketing is: "But first, do no harm." An appendix to that rule is: "If you cause harm, immediately prevent further harm."

Fresh & Easy was slow on the draw in preventing further reputational harm by talking so long to delete the September 25 post. But at least they have now done so. That's a positive thing in terms of preventing additional marketing, branding and customer relations harm to the company.

'The Promotional Pundit': Tesco Fresh & Easy Launches New $6-off Online Coupon Today; Post on Corp. Marketing Blog Remains -- Adding Insult to Injury

Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market launched its $6-off online coupon on its freshandeasy.com Web site today, as I reported yesterday in my column the grocery chain would be doing. As I reported, the coupon's value is for $6-off purchases of $30 or more in Fresh & Easy stores.

The coupon is located on the front page of the food and grocery retailer's freshandeasy.com Web site, on the left side at the very bottom of the homepage below the menu list. You can view it here. Scroll down to the bottom, left hand side of the homepage. Look closely as it is in a spot you likely wouldn't notice unless you are intentionally looking. The green color of the coupon link also tends to blend in with the page colors, making it less than easy to spot.

When you click on the coupon graphic on the homepage, it takes you to a page where the coupon is here. You click on a link and can download the coupon. Below is the promotional message at that link:




The new online coupon expires on October 19. That's one week from today.

In my column yesterday I reported the $6-off online coupon dropping today would have a three week shelf-life. That's not the case. Instead the coupon has a one week shelf-life. It expires on October 19, 2008. The Promotional Pundit can't be perfect. And, he was told by a couple good sources the original plan for the online coupon was for a three week duration.

The first Fresh & Easy online coupon, which I wrote about in my October 10 column, had a shelf-life of only four days. It came out on September 25 and expired on September 28. That online coupon had a value of only $1, good for purchases of $10 or more.

Click on the headline link to read my October 10, 2008 column here:'The Promotional Pundit': Keeping the Marketing and Promotional Eye On the Ball; Fixing A Promotional Fiasco Fresh & Easy Isn't Even Aware Of. Click on the headline link to read my column from yesterday, October 13, 2008, here: 'The Promotional Pundit:' More On the Online Coupon Fiasco: Tesco Fresh & Easy's Marketing Department to Launch A New Online Coupon Early Next Week.

In my column yesterday I suggested Tesco Fresh & Easy post today's online coupon in a easy to view place, such as on the home page of its freshandeasy.com Web site, which it has. I would suggest making the coupon advertisement a bit more easily visible than it is in its current location on the homepage though. Also a little higher-up on the page.

Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog

Unlike what was done with the first online coupon, their is no mention of the new $6-off online coupon on the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog, which is authored and published by director of marketing Simon Uwins. That coupon was only promoted on the marketing Blog, with a mention as well on the grocer's page on Twitter.com.

However, the September 25 post announcing the first online coupon -- the $1-off purchases of $10 or more -- remains as of this evening at the top of the corporate marketing Blog. It's the one I wrote about in my first column on the topic on October 10 here and wrote about again in my column yesterday. The link on the September 25 post does now take the reader to the new $6-off coupon on the Freshandeasy.com Web site though.

There are eleven comments on that September 25 post announcing the first online coupon in the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate marketing Blog. As I wrote about in yesterday's column, seven of those eleven comments are from Fresh & Easy customers unhappy about not being able to get an online coupon as the post says they can. They couldn't get it because when you click the link to the online coupon in that September 25 post it takes you to a linked page where you are told the coupon has expired. It even says "sorry."

You can read all seven of those comments in my October 13 and October 10 columns using the links above.

All of the current seven of those comments on the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog still go unanswered by Mr. Uwins or any members of his marketing staff.

It appears Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market isn't concerned about seven unhappy customers, assuming they have remained customers after their respective experiences with the first online coupon fiasco, which continues because the September 25 post remains up and the commentors'/consumers' questions remain without a response from Fresh & Easy. At least one of the commentors says she won't be shopping at Fresh & Easy anymore because of coupon issues and until they are resolved.

Marketing & promotions 101

The Promotional Pundit can't recall the last time he has seen a food and grocery retailer neglect consumers like this, especially since in the case of Fresh & Easy marketing director Simon Uwins he is using the Blog as a marketing tool. It looks to me like a better term would be "anti-marketing" tool in this case.

We all make mistakes, such as was the case Fresh & Easy made by not deleting the September 25 post, thereby creating unhappy consumers who clicked the link only to be told the online coupon was expired.

Those of us who publish Blogs know when it comes to readers leaving comments its the exception rather than the norm for them to do so. The fact seven readers of the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog have left comments indicating being less than pleased about not getting their online coupons is a rather high number. Just imagine how many readers of the Blog also tried to get the coupon, were unhappy, but didn't leave a comment. We think its likely, based on seven that did comment, that number is easily in the hundreds.

Not answering the seven commentors'/consumers' remarks on the September 25 post, along with not deleting it or at least publishing a new post announcing the new $6-off online coupon launched today is pure lack of follow-up. And that's being kind. It's an example of a marketer taking his or her eye off the marketing ball. It also violates the first rule of marketing and promotions, which is: "But first...do no harm."

In this case the harm has already been done. And each additional day that September 25 post remains up makes the harm worse. It adds insult to injury.

For example, when I wrote my October 10 column, there were three complaints from consumers on that September 25 post in the Fresh & Easy marketing Blog. Just two days later on Sunday, there were four new ones.

Again, how many additional consumers read the September 25 post in the Fresh & Easy company marketing Blog just since I wrote my first column on Friday -- and again between yesterday and this evening when I am writing this -- and couldn't obtain their online coupon, were unhappy about it, but didn't comment as is the norm? Probably quite a few. Every customer a food retailer loses generally tells six or more family members, friends and co-workers about their bad experience with that retailer, and in the case where they stop shopping at that retailer's stores why they did so. Negative word of mouth advertising is not a good thing.

Sir Terry's ghost

One of the keys to the impressive global success of Tesco PLC. under the leadership of CEO Sir Terry Leahy has been the corporate culture he's promoted at the retailer's United Kingdom headquarters which emphasises attention to detail and follow-up.

However, It appears that corporate culture hasn't successfully made the journey across the pond from the UK to Southern California where Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's corporate headquarters is located. Until it does, we expect to see more examples of taking the eye off the ball like this and numerous other examples we've chronicled since December of last year.

Meanwhile, since there's no mention on the corporate marketing Blog about the new $6-off coupon located on the homepage of freshandeasy.com, despite the fact more than one of the commentors on that September 25 post ask in their comments when a new online coupon will be coming out. I suppose they will have to get lucky and find the link on the Web site. But they only have seven days to do so since that's when the online coupon launched today expires.

'The Promotional Pundit': Keeping the Marketing and Promotional Eye On the Ball; Fixing A Promotional Fiasco Fresh & Easy Isn't Even Aware Of

On September 6 we wrote and published this brief report about a new promotional experiment Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market was trying. That new promotional experiment was the offering of an online coupon good for $1-off purchases of $10 or more at Fresh & Easy grocery stores.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market marketing director Simon Uwins announced the offering in a brief September, 25, 2008 post on his Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate marketing Blog.

Below is that September 25 post on the Fresh & Easy Web site Blog:

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Online Coupon at Fresh & Easy
We have noticed a number of requests for an online coupon. So, we’re giving it a try… Check it out and let us know what you think…

When you click the linked words "Check it out": it takes you to a page on the company Web site where the online coupon is...Well, was.

Below was the promotional message that was on the linked Web site page along with the online coupon from September 25-28:

So far so good...right?

As we wrote about in our September 26 piece, since Fresh & Easy only promoted the coupon on the Blog it looked to us like an experiment, which we are all for from a marketing and promotional standpoint.

Additionally, the coupon had a very short shelf life, which is another indication of its experimental nature. The $1-off online coupon expired on September 28, three days after the September 25 Blog post by Mr. Uwins -- and a full two weeks ago.

However, there hasn't been a new post made on the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog since that September 25 post over two weeks ago. Therefore the first post you see when you view the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog is the September 25 post touting the online coupon. That's the post that reads: We have noticed a number of requests for an online coupon. So, we’re giving it a try… Check it out and let us know what you think…

And if at this very moment you happen to be one of those folks that are a part of the group making "a number of requests for an online coupon," or you are a consumer in general who happens to be viewing the Blog and wants an online coupon to take with you shopping to a Fresh & Easy store in order to save a buck -- and you click the "Check it out" link -- you're going to be an unhappy consumer.

Why?

Because even though the very first and the most recent post you see on the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog is the one touting the online coupon, when you click the "Check it Out link," below is the message you get instead of the $1-off coupon you are looking forward to downloading:

The Promotional Pundit calls this "taking the eye off the ball marketing." By this P.P means a failure to follow through properly with a marketing or promotional campaign, even if it is "experimental." In fact, if it is experimental, following through is at least equally and possibly even more important.

And without follow through, not only is the experiment a failure, it can also damage a food retailer's overall image.

In this particular case consumers in general (and existing Fresh & Easy customers) are essentially being teased. They go to the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog, read the most recent post, click on the "Check it out" link to view and most probably download the coupon, only to be told it has expired. Thanks for taking your time to "Check it out." But no thanks.

Wouldn't your response to having gone through this process only to be denied what was promised (the $1-off coupon) in the promotional proposition be: "Thanks for wasting my time Fresh & Easy?

Marketing and promotional activities, including experiments, are intended to not only generate some incremental sales (such as in the case of the $1-off online coupon) but also to fit into the whole of a retailer's marketing strategy. The chief incremental (along with more sales) as well as medium and long term goal being to build goodwill, build brand, and thus increase, maintain and create loyal customers.

And, as in medicine, the chief marketing and promotional credo for marketers should be: "Above all do no harm."

By taking its eye off the marketing and promotional ball and not following through on its online coupon experiment, Fresh & Easy is committing just that marketing mistake. It's disappointing and likely turning off consumers who go to the Blog, read the brief post, click on the link, and look forward to downloading the $1-off coupon. It's also doing harm to the Fresh & Easy brand, which is still yet to be built. All that translates into sales (or lost sales), in case you were wondering if the Promotional Pundit would mention that important part of the overall equation.

There's a very simple solution to this problem. In fact it's a "two click" solution. And that solution (the follow through) should have been implemented the very day the coupon expired, September 28.

On the very day the coupon expired, Mr. Uwins or one of his staff should have simply deleted the September 25 post about the online coupon. Following that, they should then have deleted the page on the Web site where the expired online coupon was located.

By simply following through and deleting the September 25 post and the coupon link page, on September 28, Fresh & Easy could have avoided the as yet unanswered comments offered by consumers numbers 4, 5 and 6 on the Blog post, which we reproduce from the Fresh & Easy corporate Blog in full below:

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Online Coupon at Fresh & Easy

We have noticed a number of requests for an online coupon. So, we’re giving it a try… Check it out and let us know what you think…

posted by Simon Uwins @ 4:58 PM

6 Comments:

1. At September 28, 2008 2:48 PM , Dick said...
Why don't you sell gift cards?

2. At September 28, 2008 5:19 PM , Anonymous said...
Will you please open some stores in Canada? Thank you,Trent

3. At September 28, 2008 11:09 PM , San Diego Fan said...
gift cards would definitely be great! I'd happily give them as presents, I love your store and it'd be a great way to introduce my friends to it as well.

4. At October 1, 2008 11:27 PM , Jeff said...
Thx for listening! It says the coupon is expired, though. :)

5. At October 3, 2008 8:39 PM , Anonymous said...
why aren't there any more coupons given at the stores? and where are the online coupons?

6. At October 6, 2008 12:59 PM , Anonymous said...
i'm ready for the coupons!

The first commentor out of the three (of a total 6 comments) above who address the missing coupon issue is Jeff, who is number 4 above. Jeff is obviously unhappy about not being able to get the $1-off online coupon the Blog post promises him, even though he is smiling.

Number 5 asks plainly: "Where are the online coupons?" The answer is: it expired on September 28, days before your October 3 post. Since the commentor asked where the coupons are a week ago and still hasn't received an answer on the Fresh & Easy corporate Blog, we can imagine he or she isn't a happy Tesco Fresh & Easy shopper either.

Number 6 obviously clicked the link and instead of getting the promised coupon got the "coupon has expired" message too. He or she takes a bit more proactive approach to his disappointment over being teased saying..."I'm ready for the coupons."

Since we see no response from the publisher or marketing team of the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog to Number 6's obvious state of displeasure over having taken the time to attempt to download a coupon but instead getting a "sorry expired" message, something tells us he or she isn't out amongst the masses spreading the cheer for Fresh & Easy either. The Promotional Pundit is a big fan of positive word of mouth marketing by the way. On the other hand P.P. hates negative word of mouth.

Conclusion

The best laid plans of mice and men (and woman too) can often go south. However, when it comes to marketing and promotion: "The meek may inherit the earth...but they won't create market share."

The Promotional Pundit suggests the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market marketing team not be meek. Rather they should delete the September 25 post right away, along with the link telling people the coupon has expired. That's no way to entice potential and existing customers.

The jobs still not done yet though.

Once the "two click" deletions are completed, it's time to make up for taking the marketing and promotional eye off the ball.

How to do that?

Quickly create a $1-off coupon. Give it an about three week expiration date, say to October 31, 2008. Then replace the just deleted September 25 post (including the "Check it out link" to the new coupon) with a new one. On that new post announcing the new, three week online coupon, make it clear the coupon expires on October 31 And, very important: On the early morning of October 31 delete that post and the coupon.

While not completely undoing the mistake, doing this gives the consumers who were disappointed -- not just the three who commented about it but the many more who wouldn't comment because doing so is the exception not the norm -- a chance to get their coupon.

After all, they are doing what Fresh & Easy wants them to do. They didn't take their eyes off the marketing and promotional ball. There's no mention on the September 25 regarding when the coupon expires. The consumer only finds that out when she takes her busy time to click the "Check it out" link, only to discover she can't get what she is promised in the post. In other words, she is set up with a marketing and promotional proposition. She goes for it. Then is told while in near mid-mouse click by the marketer the proposition has been cancelled.

Fixing the problem as the Promotional Pundit suggests also is a good way to show a lack of meekness; that Fresh & Easy could care less about inheriting the earth -- but does care about increasing market share, even in little ways. The Devil is in the details, after all.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Experiments With A $1-Off Online Discount Coupon; But its Paper Coupons Offer More Than Twice the Value

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has created it's first online store discount coupon, which the retailer is offering at a special link on its website for a limited time, ending on September 28.

Consumers can download and print the coupon from the website here, then use it while shopping at the Fresh & Easy stores.

The online coupon, which has the marketing message above at the link, offers shoppers $1-off total purchases of $10 or more at Fresh & Easy markets. The online coupon is of a far less value (less than half ) than the retailer's now famous $5-off total store purchases of $20 or more paper coupons, which it direct mails to households near its 87 stores in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona, and gives out in its stores.

The online $1-off coupon isn't a replacement or substitute for the $5-off coupons, which the grocery chain continues to use. Rather, it's being offered in addition to those coupons, along with being an attempt to further target frequent online users and visitors to the company's website freshandeasy.com.

Few people (including the consumer press) are aware of the online coupon though, since Fresh & Easy hasn't promoted it in its usual fashion of issuing a press release. As of Wednesday we hadn't seen or heard of any signs advertising it in the Fresh & Easy stores either. Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market director of marketing Simon Uwins does have a one sentence September 25 post about it on his company blog though.

In fact, unless you use this link you can't access the $1-off coupon directly from the Fresh & Easy website home page. At least that's the case as we write and publish this piece.

Go figure.

In large part, we think the online coupon, particularly because of its limited duration and lack of widespread promotion, is a way for Tesco's Fresh & Easy to test the potential of using the Internet and its website more than it currently is doing for store promotions and discounts.

However, since Fresh & Easy shoppers are used to the $5-off on purchases of $20 or more (a 25% savings if used for a $20 purchase), paper coupons they receive in the mail and at the stores, we doubt they will be nearly as excited about the $1-off purchases of $10 or more online coupon, since it represents only a 10% value on a $10 purchase, which is less than half the value of the $5-off on $20 paper coupons.

The $1-off value coupons are probably more in-line with what Fresh & Easy should be offering in terms of coupon value though to avoid what we believe is to a large degree a perception in the minds of consumers (which we believe is occurring with the ubiquitous use of the $5-off coupons) of Fresh & Easy as a "Hi-Low" retailer rather than the everyday low-price image it wants to create, along with the fact that at some point the retailer will have to reduce the value of those $5 coupons if it wants to increase its margins, which are far lower than the U.S. industry average at present.

A retailer can charge-off as a "promotional or advertising" expense deep discount coupons like Fresh & Easy's $5-off on a minimum $20 purchase vouchers for a given period of time, theoretically protecting on paper its gross margins.

However, at some point it has to deal with real gross margins, and the use of 25% value deep discount coupons at the high level in which Tesco's Fresh & Easy uses the coupons has a significant suppression effect on those gross margins. This is particularly serious for Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market since its gross margins, even taking away the extensive $5 coupon use, need significant improvement, according to sources who have been and are in positions to know such things.

That Tesco's Fresh & Easy is experimenting more with its website and online marketing is smart though. The retailer does far too little online marketing and promotion compared to numerous other retailers.

For example, Aldi USA posts a weekly ad on its website and sends it to those who sign up via a weekly email alert. [See these website special purchases as well.] The retailer also has a special "value calculator" on its website in which users can find out "how much cheaper it is to shop at Aldi" than it is to shop its competitors. The small-format, deep discount grocery chain, with 950 U.S. stores, does other special marketing and promotional activities via its website as well.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy seems, based on our research, to have its strongest following among young consumers, those in about the 18 -to- 35 year-old age group, with the highest segment of that group cohort being in the 18 -to- 25 year-old age group, in our analysis.

Since consumers in this age cohort also happen to be the heaviest and most frequent and savvy users of the Internet -- not just on computers but on cell phones and other portable devices as well -- it would behoove Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in our analysis to make far more frequent -- and creative -- use of the Internet and its freshandeasy.com website than it is currently doing.