tHe idiOts proMo : Shell Lubricants price off will not lubricate consumer purchase

all consumer promotions, including price offs, are meant to generate increased purchase or trial of a product. it is meant to increase sales. to do that, a consumer promotion must in essence give the consumer an offer he/she cannot refuse. most key to the success of the consumer promotion is the latter. the offer must be attractive, otherwise it's a waste of valuable marketing budget. if you cannot give an offer the consumer cannot refuse - DO NOT RUN THE CONSUMER PROMOTION. spend your marketing funds elsewhere.

we will be writing the above every time we talk about consumer promotions. i am floored that we see promotions launched by companies like Shell who does not seem to get that most basic philosophy on consumer promotions.

if you have a vehicle, the gasoline station is a place you go to at least every 10 days if you gas up full tank or more often than that if you don't gas up full tank. i would think for most vehicles, if it's not a full tank, it will be at least P200.00. a full tank for small car like a honda civic is around P1,100.00. because you gas up very often, consumers are very price conscious.

most vehicle owners are aware of gas prices but may not be too aware of prices of lubricants for the simple reason that vehicle owners do not have an oil change often. we do that every 5,000 kilometers or maybe once a year to twice a year.

shell ran a price discount on their lubricants. they had fliers to promote it that they give each motorist who goes to their station to gas up. a price off at this time is a very smart thing to do. everyone is looking for ways to save money. getting an oil change is a necessity, just like filling up your car with gas, so a price off is a very attractive consumer promotion.

i usually gas up full tank at a time, that means the price point in my mind is P1,100.00 or there abouts. when in a hurry, i fill up P500.00. so, the price point in my mind when i entered that shell gas station was either P500.00 to P1,100.00.

after i gassed up, the gasoline boy together with my receipt and credit card, happily gave me not 1 but 2 fliers on their lubricant price off promo. when i got the flier, i wanted to kill the gasoline boy.

what the f%$#@! is this promo??? that was my reaction to the price off promo on shell lubricants! 5 freaking pesos off! was that supposed to excite me? how?

i just gassed up full tank, i paid P1,000.00 on the gasoline i just bought and they will give me an equivalent 0.5% discount? ok fine, i paid for gas and not a lubricant, but that is the price point in my mind at the time i received the flier.

i don't actually know what is the price of lubricants at shell, but i would say it would at least be P500.00. if that is the case - they are giving customers a whopping 1% discount? WTH is that?? why bother to give a discount when it is just 1% or 0.5% of the cost? how in the world can that encourage customers to avail of this price off promo?

P5.00 is the amount you give gasoline boys as tip when they put air in the tires of your cars. P5.00 is the amount you give to watch-your-car boys. in fact, i think i give too little as most people i know give watch-your-car boys P10.00 tips!

what made me even madder in this effort of theirs is that the gasoline boy gave me 2 fliers. the flier is half page bond paper size, glossy, thick paper, double side printing and full color - the cost of one flier must be P2.50 per piece. since they gave me 2 fliers - they just gave me P5.00 worth of fliers! the cost of the fliers they gave me is almost the cost of the price off.

of fine, i can be exaggerating - the flier cost is unlikely P2.50 per piece. haha. but seriously, it must cost at least P1.00 a piece. so they gave me P2.00 worth of value on a price off promo that that they are giving away at P5.00!

i cannot understand the logic of all of that!

first, why bother giving a price off when the price they are taking from my purchase price is worth nothing? definitely unattractive! why run this promo at all?

and to shoot their other foot, they spend so much money on fliers that is almost equivalent to the price value they are giving away! did they have to distribute fliers for this kind of promo? wouldn't a handwritten note do? or even cheap mimeographed printing? or some cheap photocopied flier? for heaven's sake, don't print fliers - just have a poster printed to show customers!

did they think distributing a nicely printed flier worth P1.00 per piece will encourage consumers to avail of a price off promo that will give consumers a P5.00 discount?

i cannot over-emphasize this - the Shell lubricants P5.00 Off promo is tHe idiOts proMo !