Boston Market CEO Explains Bungled Promotion
Baltimore Sun reporter Liz Kay tracked down Boston Market CEO Lane Cardwell to get him to answer to his restaurants' muffed $1 meal coupon promotion. Boston Markets were unprepared for the deluge of customers who wanted to take advantage of the deal, and stores ran out of food.
Kay posts a message from Cardwell, who says one problem was the promo ran too long:
Our mistake was in thinking that we were making things better by having the promotion run for a week, instead of 2-3 days. We never would have done a 1 day promo like KFC since it makes your guests jump through too many hoops to take advantage of it.
However, by the third day it was clear that instead of making the situation better from a guest standpoint, it make it worse. It allowed the coupon to take on viral properties and spread throughout the country. It gave time for people to come back a second, third, and fourth time, which we were okay with, but it made the lines longer, not shorter
Another issue, Cardwell says, is that Boston Market deals in fresh food, not frozen. He also said workers doled out rain checks to disgruntled customers who couldn't get in on the $1 lovin.'
Boston Market CEO responds about coupon promotion [Baltimore Sun]
(Photo: Morton Fox)
Post a comment
Comments:
How can any restaurant claim to be unprepared for these things when the results of such of a promotion are the same EVERY SINGLE TIME???
I just can't believe that when someone said "it might be a good idea to run a promotion where we give out free food" not one single person spoke up and said "you know, that would probably cause problems for us."
If you're going to have a promotion that you want your guests to take advantage of 2, 3 or more times over the course of 3 days, how do you expect to not have long lines? People like free food - lots of people equals long lines. If you just wanted to sell $1 chicken for awhile create an evergreen dollar menu, then there won't be such a rush to get there within the window.
It might have been a good idea to have planned ahead, and ordered more supplies, and had some overtime. You would think the "higher-ups" making 6 figures could do that.
@dragonfire81: This isn't rocket science. People like free food. It could have all been prevented had someone developed some common sense.
I get that it's free and all, but I have to say that the meatloaf in that photo is extremely unappetizing. It looks like a microwavable dinner or airplane food.
@frari489: I think their original intention was that if it spanned more than one day, you wouldn't see people mobbing the place trying to take advantage of the offer before it was over. By spreading the crowds over many days, you see increased traffic, but it shouldn't be unmanageable, and there's a lower chance of running out of food because restaurants have the opportunity to restock.
The only problem with that reasoning is how they did their coupons. If coupons had a one use code on them it probably could have worked.
@dragonfire81: Exactly. I have yet to see a free food/super cheap food promotion that hasn't gotten screwed up. The excuse is usually "We weren't prepared for the amount of people that showed up". How is that? You're giving out free/super cheap food in the middle of a recession, people are gonna hit that up hard. And even if it wasn't a recession, people don't normally pass up free food.
@pecan 3.14159265: I define Boston Market as "Thanksgiving meats cafeteria food"
You can't pay me to set foot in their restaurants.
hmm, if the CEO of Boston Market can't even put together an intelligible sentence, i wouldn't expect too much from them. seriously, those two 'paragraphs' are riddled with pronouns to the point of incoherence.
shame too, it used to be good food. over priced, granted, but tasty.
@ThinkerTDM: I don't think they do the actual food ordering, though, do they? Isn't it mostly a franchise operation?
@pecan 3.14159265: Makes me wonder if that's why he didn't think they'd get rushed. "I mean, have you seen our food? Who would line up for that?"
Need more coupons that have the words ..
"If we feel like serving you."
Should they have honored my coupon on Sunday? It said "expires 11/1" as opposed to "valid thru 11/1" so I wasn't sure. Rare to see that on a coupon, but they wouldn't give me my meal cause they said it was expired.
@korybing: To be fair, I think Denny's free breakfast deal went OK. Sure they had long lines, but they fed everybody.
@korybing:
The problem is that sometimes a store might not be properly warned of an upcoming promotion until it is too late, or that the stores can only hold so much food and when something like this goes on they can only make an approximation of how much they will need each of the days, I think it is reasonable that they had run out given the way that it had exploded and the amount of people that showed up. It isn't like they just turned people away, at the boston markets near me they offered other meals in substitution or rain checks when those ran out.
I give him credit for even knowing that "deal sites" exist. Most execs just have their admins "do the internet" for them.
Of course, he was briefed up by Marketing, but it's a start.
I don't get the impression that they were really okay with people coming back 2, 3, or 4 times. The way he phrased it, I don't think that's what they were expecting, nor do repeat customers ultimately serve the purpose of the promotion.
@andsowouldi: Yes. In the absence of words to the contrary, the offer would normally be through the end of 11/1.
@dragonfire81:
Or to use the words of Einstein: "Doing the same thing over & over again & expecting a different result is the definition of insanity!"
Hey Lane, where do you folks get your common sense? From a toilet? Did you actually study in college? Or get stoned? I remember fully well what poor planning does and I still use those methodologies in my job even after graduating 10 years ago: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. Also try to Communicate to your employees your objectives. Follow-Through. Be available for issues and bottle-necks, which ALWAYS occur; not sometimes. CEO Lane Cardwell had the ability to benchmark the poor example from KFC to help make Boston Chicken a success, yet, it still failed. In today's world, failures seem to be the new American business model.
@andsowouldi: I really think they should have forgone the expiration date or at the very least, give it a date of Dec 31, 09. This would not have been a big deal to them. Anyone with a grain of common sense should have seen this even occurring the way it did. I was at my local Boston restaurant the day this occurred and fortunately I bought my meal before the rush came in, but I didn't have a meal ticket because I had no idea what was going on anyway. Within five minutes of sitting down to eat, there were about 25 people in line. It wasn't 10 minutes later than the announcements came out about being "short" on certain food items. Hell, they hadn't even really begun the process of getting the meal tickets from everyone and they were short on food. This promo was not well thought out by upper-management nor was it thought out well by the manager of this restaurant. If it were me, I would have gotten to the restaurant at 4 in the morning and started cooking up all the chicken on hand to get ready.
Maybe places should just stop this. It
As for "doling out rain checks to disgruntled customers". Too little too late. When most customers have only 30 minutes to eat, one rarely gives a shit about rain checks. I bet more than one customer went back to work on an empty stomach.
@dragonfire81: It's the disconnect between operations and marketing. Marketing cooks up this $1 coupon deal that will directly affect operations. The CEO signs off on it and things go into motion, save for any advance notice for operations or few if any of the branch departments.
Coupons roll out, franchises are caught off-guard and are either burned or buried by demand.
This is what happens when you let marketers drive the business, they make promotions that will destroy the rest of your company if you let them. You snap a leash onto marketing's collars and start yanking it HARD.
The interview response: "Duh?"
My response can be answered about the entire promotion: "Duh!"
If the coupons could only be used once, then it would have been manageable. But they allowed the same coupon to be used over and over again, so I'm betting there were some people coming back over and over again, plus sending the coupon to other people.
@floraposte: Boston Market is corporate run, but each store manage does the food ordering. I doubt they even told the store managers about the promotion.
@Kogenta: how do you suppose they could implement a one use only code? release new coupons for each day?
It was a pretty big "oops" that got a lot of attention, but to be honest I chalk this one up as a live and learn situation. I do not expect them to run a promotion which is both this attractive and lasts that long again.
@pecan 3.14159265: I have never seen meatloaf that was photogenic. Doesn't mean it doesn't taste good.
"How can any restaurant claim to be unprepared for these things when the results of such of a promotion are the same EVERY SINGLE TIME???"
I wonder the same thing.
I have started to believe that many people who rise to the top of executive ladders are very good at doing one thing:
Telling their boss "That's a great idea!"
People who tell their boss: "That could be good, but we need to work on some issues to implement that..." do not rise up the corporate ladder.
You can be sure there were many people at these companies who knew this would be a disaster.
Frustrating, isn't it?!
Why do companies keep doing this? I suppose any publicity is good is what they are thinking.
@Elcheecho: There's software out there that does that. It's what KFC used for the initial Oprah offer. It's how manufacturers distribute most coupons online. It has its flaws, but it can generally limit coupons per PC.
@LeChiffre: Oh goodie! $1 Lunches and $1 dinners every day through the end of the year! Gotta tell all my friends, blogs, and twitter about this deal!
As others have said, how Boston Market (and their CEO) could not have looked at what happened when competitors ran similar promotions and known this thing would go viral, people would come back 2-3 times, etc. escapes my understanding.
He basically said "Gosh, I guess we're just not that good at running this place."
@RandomHookup: It works very well. I've been doing couponing for the last couple of months, and the e-coupons are a godsend. A lot of ink wasted though.
@Skaperen:I know right, because once health care is free hospitals will be overrun by people getting cancer and heart disease for the LOLz, and we just can't afford that in the middle of waging two discretionary foreign wars.
@Skaperen: and wow! We tied even THIS Post back into the health care debate. Is FOX news handing out specific talking points for consumerist readers now to overtake any unrelated comments? Somebody fucking shoot me.
Boston market probably thought that by attaching a nominal cost to the food that they would avoid people going back for thirds and fourths, but these free meal promotions are seriously stupid. KFC would have done far better to throw in a free grilled piece with every bucket of chicken than giving it away free. Do the execs at Boston Market really believe that once someone receives a free Boston Market meal they will be loyal Boston Market customers for life?
I'm beginning to think that these promos are intentionally shortchanged with only a certain amount of said product so that when it runs out, it runs out, and there's no more financial loss. Then they can go on television (to keep the restaurant topical), apologize "sincerely" and make it look like the promotion was just too huge to control and they're just too popular.
@RandomHookup: Yeah but those protections rarely last against dedicated "dealers". I imagine one of the infamous deal sites would have a cracked jpg version of it in hours.
@dragonfire81: I don't think it happens every single time. I think people just don't report it when the marketing plan is only a mild success. "Coupon giveaway nets 20% increase in sales" is a headline only Advertising Age could love.
@Kogenta: But he stated that they were fine with people coming multiple times. That wasn't the issue.
@FatLynn: I thoroughly disagree. Repeat customers establish habit that continues beyond the promotion period. We are more likely to consider Boston Market because of the promotion.
Hoops? Like making sure to come to the restaurant on a specific day?
I think I see why this promotion resulted in a huge cockup.