Don't Waste Your Promotion Dollars

I was driving to work yesterday and heard a spot for $4.99 haircuts. Huh. That sounds interesting. Not for me, really. But I can see how people would respond to a promotion for $4.99 haircuts.

My first thought was "why would the company do this?" They can't be making money on a haircut at this price. But the more I thought about, the smarter I thought it was. Think about it. If you like the person who cuts your hair or the way they cut your hair, you will go to that person even if the price goes up a bit. So it is a classic loss leader strategy. I get it.

About the time I have this thought, the spot is over and I realize I didn't actually know the name of the company promoting the $4.99 haircut. Was it Hair Cuttery? Or one of the other chains? What are their names?

So I googled $4.99 haircuts. Which I am sure plenty of other people did. But I the results surprised me. I didn't get anything clean. I got a couple of "retail offer" aggregator site results. And about half way down a result for Great Clips. Could it have been a Great Clips spot I heard?

I clicked on their site. Try it. Great Clips home page. Do you see a $4.99 offer on there anywhere? I don't. And not under any of the tabs.

So then I click on their Facebook page that they promote.....seriously? A Great Clips Facebook fan page? Ok, I guess. And I look there for their announcement of the offer. But I can't find it, but I do see some fans talking about the a $5.99 promotion and then another about the $4.99 promotion.

Next I Google it again and look at the "Coupon" sites that have come up. It looks like I need a coupon for the haircut. Fatwallet.

Was there a print component to this campaign? Postcard coupons perhaps? That would make sense. Did it tell me where my nearest Great Clips was or did it drive me to the web? Did it drive me to a "send a friend a coupon" feature?

Here's my point. Great Cuts obviously spent money, good money I would imagine, to run a morning drive time spot to promote a product. But they did not have their channels aligned. At the very least, the promotion should have been on the home page of the company site. I guess a splash page for the promo replacing the homepage temporarily would be to much to ask.

I don't want a $4.99 haircut. But I know people will. Make it easy for them next time. If you spend for a promotion, create a mousetrap where all your channels lead back to each other.