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With the economy still not doing so hot. It seems like many companies out there are competing harder then ever to get more and keep more customers buying their products/services. They realize that sometimes you have to spend money to make money and hope for healthy returns on the investment. They also do it so you, the consumer, feel they are relating to the hardships that you are going through. And lastly they do it to upstage their competitors and beat them to the punch.
Recently there has been uptick of high profile promotions. And since we all like food, here are a bunch of food promotion examples. Like the Denny’s Superbowl ad that gave a free Grand Slam breakfast to patrons on a certain day. They received a huge outcome. Also, there was the Oprah/KFC meal giveaway. Even though this one was promotion was a bit rough around the edges, Oprah spent more money on the KFC giveaway than on her free-car-to-all-audience-members show. She also said she got more thank you notes from the KFC promotion too.
Just a couple months ago, Mars released a press statement on their website regarding the “The Real Chocolate Relief Act”. Mars plans to give away around 7 million free full-size candy bars between now and September. According to a New York Times article, Frito-Lay also joined on the bandwagon at the beginning of the summer with the banner at the top of many of their Cheeto, Fritos, and Tostitos bag saying “”Hey! There’s 20% more free fun to share in here.” Also, according to the same New York Times article, back in May “French’s condiments, promoting(ed) larger packages to be sold at lower prices. For instance, a 20-ounce bottle of French’s Classic Yellow mustard will cost less than a 14-ounce bottle.”
Kraft Singles also came up with a clever all-American type of promotion. Bring in a Singles wrapper to
any Minor League Baseball game and get a buy-one-get-one-free deal to a Tuesday night game.
It also seemed like the annual free food days got a little more play this year. 7-Eleven always celebrates July 11 or 7/11 by giving out free Slurpees. Haagen Dazs and Ben and Jerry’s gave away free ice cream on their respective Free Flavors Day and Free Cone Day.
The New York Times article has a great quote that sums up all the reasons these companies are doing these promotions “The consumer is telling you something: ‘I want to see value. I want you to demonstrate value,’”
In higher ed, colleges and universities are heavily competing for the surge of students going back to school during the tough economic times. The exact tactics above won’t probably work, but the lesson does. The question then becomes, what can higher education afford to give away for free to give prospective students a taste of your campus and to show off the value of the school. Yes, I said giveaway something for free. Is there something substantial enough to show the value of the education that prospective students can receive. Remember, the examples above are giving away $10 tickets and $4 ice cream cones. What can higher education giveaway for free to illustrate the value of a $10,000 school year? Especially when the value of a higher education is being questioned in articles and features like this New York Times Room for Debate and this Huffington Post article.
Posted by Travis 
