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I heard on the news about the Build-A-Bear promotion for today (7-12) to buy a bear for the cost of a child's age, capping out at $29 for adults. Good deal, right? Perhaps too good - they had to turn people away after mere hours of stores opening, due to massive demand and crazy-long lines. And now everyone who's child (most likely in tears) didn't go home with a bear is gonna be pretty ticked off.
My question is this - why didn't the execs at this company anticipate the demand and plan accordingly? You had to register beforehand on their "rewards" site, so they knew how many people were interested in this promotion before it began. Maybe they didn't want to sell all those bears at these low prices, so they went into "slowdown" mode at the stores just to keep most customers from being able to buy one.
This is the sort of thing that really gets my goat - these marketing people get paid big bucks to come up with "brilliant" promotions, only to screw up on a colossal scale. Why - just why?
I heard on the news about the Build-A-Bear promotion for today (7-12) to buy a bear for the cost of a child's age, capping out at $29 for adults. Good deal, right? Perhaps too good - they had to turn people away after mere hours of stores opening, due to massive demand and crazy-long lines. And now everyone who's child (most likely in tears) didn't go home with a bear is gonna be pretty ticked off.
My question is this - why didn't the execs at this company anticipate the demand and plan accordingly? You had to register beforehand on their "rewards" site, so they knew how many people were interested in this promotion before it began. Maybe they didn't want to sell all those bears at these low prices, so they went into "slowdown" mode at the stores just to keep most customers from being able to buy one.
This is the sort of thing that really gets my goat - these marketing people get paid big bucks to come up with "brilliant" promotions, only to screw up on a colossal scale. Why - just why?
*First, I had to google 'build a bear' to find out what on Earth you were talking about. You might've noted that the 'bear' in question was a toy.
*Second, marketing markets. They don't handle logistics. This wasn't a failure in the marketing department.
*Third... ever hear of the Edsel? New Coke? Even much larger companies with much longer histories occasionally screw the pooch.
*Fourth, now I've heard of Build-A-Bear. It's publicity. Is it negative? Sure is. That doesn't change the fact that they're expanding the public's awareness of their products. P.T Barnum (supposedly) understood.
I heard on the news about the Build-A-Bear promotion for today (7-12) to buy a bear for the cost of a child's age, capping out at $29 for adults. Good deal, right? Perhaps too good - they had to turn people away after mere hours of stores opening, due to massive demand and crazy-long lines. And now everyone who's child (most likely in tears) didn't go home with a bear is gonna be pretty ticked off.
My question is this - why didn't the execs at this company anticipate the demand and plan accordingly? You had to register beforehand on their "rewards" site, so they knew how many people were interested in this promotion before it began. Maybe they didn't want to sell all those bears at these low prices, so they went into "slowdown" mode at the stores just to keep most customers from being able to buy one.
This is the sort of thing that really gets my goat - these marketing people get paid big bucks to come up with "brilliant" promotions, only to screw up on a colossal scale. Why - just why?
Huge fiasco for their marketing team.
This will not leave a favorable impression with the public.
So many other ways they could have run this promotion - single use coupons, as a birthday promotion, etc.
Instead it was a just mess at many malls across the country.
Police had to be called for crowd control in my area.
I took my son to the park, got supplies from Home Depot, got some cheesey bread from Little Cesars, got him 2 new pairs of jeans from Children's Place. This all took less time than just the time people, including my girlfriend, spent in line.
...all so peole could people could save like $30, at the cost of nearly 4 hours, for a bear that is bear-ly (bad pun intended) even worth the reduced price.
I'm'a guilt trip the heck outta my woman for this bwahaha.
Who would have thought that so many are wrapped up in teddy bears?
In a way, it is good to see, people getting out of the house, an item we love from cradle to grave (I have a few bears around the house including Bear, a big one that I bought, Mom "adopted" to have around the house, and eventually came back home to me), and people not going after something electronic (right?).
Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disaster, a disaster for those who went to the stores, a disaster for the company, and a disaster for the country for if it wasn't about misery, would the news have covered it all? As far as the last one goes, just more stirring of the pot.
Recoverable? Well, that depends on how much those outside the equation of company and customers want to hype the profit of dirty laundry.
IMHO.
Quote:
Originally Posted by marino760
Obviously a lot of people have nothing better to do with their time than to stand in line for a discounted toy.
Comme ce, comme ca.
I have two wizard bears. They are nothing but balls of Styrofoam covered with thin material, they are arcade prizes, and I won them with a lover after playing endless hours over so many days over countless weeks of games to get the tickets so both of us could have one. They are prized, I love them, I would never part with them.
Maybe it is symbolic magic (my stuffed animals certainly fit into my Wicca fantasies).
I have two tall talking Geoffreys that Mom and I bought together, years ago, during a Toys R Us promotional. It's what Mom and I did, we bought stuffed animals together.....and since we did, it is now understandable why parents would be so involved in this effort.
Now, would I have gotten caught up in this affair? No for now my stuffed animal collection is HUGE and really doesn't need anymore dedicated buying.
Last edited by TamaraSavannah; 07-12-2018 at 07:48 PM..
I had several interviews for a management position with this company last year. Didn't get the job, and am glad now hearing this madness. It reminded me of the KFC chicken shortage that caused chaos a while back. People are rabid with consumerism tbese days. Look at how nuts they go on black fridays. Yikes.
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