Early contender for Best Marketing of the Year award is Coles with its “Little Shop” promotion. Even Woolworths had to admit their own sales volumes copped a flogging as shoppers flocked to Coles to get their Little Shop rewards. Now that the dust is settling (most of the zealots have completed their collection) there’s a couple of take home messages.
Collecting
The first message is simple. People love collecting. But creating something people will love to collect is about as difficult as creating a video that will go viral. The driver of success for Little Shop is at least in part linked to gambling and its addictive nature. The “blind” bag containing the little products replicates the thrill of gambling because the shopper doesn’t know what they’ll get and there is a chance of getting something of high value (something they are missing). And who doesn’t like a surprise? Unlike gambling, however, after the initial excitement, there is a longer lasting happiness that comes with having added to a collection. Collectables as loyalty rewards are not uncommon. Think Happy Meal and any number of movie promos. Even Woolworths got in on the action with Marvel. But Little Shop adds a new dimension by reinforcing the products and brand of the actual business promoting them.
A key factor for marketing promotions is the cost and the cost of the Little Shop promotion should have been zero or negligible. If the whole campaign wasn’t entirely paid for by the participating product manufacturers then Coles are slipping with their negotiations. Pental, which makes White King Power Clean, for instance, are thrilled they took up the opportunity because they experienced a 50 per cent growth in sales on the back of having its product miniaturised.
Free stuff
The second take home message from the Little Shop promotion is that people love free stuff. In fact, Coles really hit the jackpot with free plastic this year as the Little Shop success coincided with their backflip on plastic bags. The decision to give away free plastic bags for two months probably had more to do with pulling market share away from Woolworths than responding to disgruntled customers. But kudos to Coles for recognising that what people say in surveys and what they do in real life are two different things. The question is, will they now give away free Little Bags for their Little Shop grocery items?