• by Karlene Lukovitz , February 27, 2009

Quiznos' 1 million sub giveaway promotion is generating some negative online buzz from consumers reporting problems in redeeming their freebie coupons.

 

The offer for a free small sub--driven by open registration for an online coupon, promotional emails to customers and heavy viral action--certainly succeeded at generating response.

The question now is whether the promotion could turn out to be a lesson in having all of your ducks in a row before unleashing a free offer in the social media arena.

Last Thursday morning, just three days into the promotion, Quiznos' millionsubs.com site announced that the 1-million free-sub mark had been reached. The free coupon registration was shut off. On the promotion's first day, Monday, Quiznos EVP Marketing Rebecca Steinfort told Marketing Daily that no specific cut-off date had been set and the promo would likely run as long as it was "bringing in new people."

Online reports about redemption problems began to appear later in the week. For example, WalletPop.com blogger Jason Cochran reported that the site's complaint box was "stuffed" with irate feedback from consumers. "The most common [complaint] is manager-made signs of refusal being taped up at the counter," Cochran wrote. "Other beefs include managers who restrict redeemers to the cheapest part of the menu, in contradiction of the coupon, which specifically gives customers two menus from which to choose. Still more complaints involve a bait-and-switch requiring the purchase of a drink and chips, too."

Cochran reported that his own experience in redeeming a coupon at a Manhattan Quiznos went smoothly. However, he pointed out that while the coupon clearly stated that it was good only at "participating locations," he had been unable to find a way to determine which locations were participating.

WalletPop posters claiming to be current or former Quiznos franchise owners responded, some maintaining that franchisees had been given insufficient input on promotions that require them to bear food costs that they cannot afford.

Consumer experiences seem to be varying significantly by store. Blog posts and tweets about the promotion were a mix of positive and negative as of this morning.

Quiznos' Steinfort supplied the following statement to Marketing Daily today: "Quiznos is continually working to develop new products that offer great food at a great value for its guests, while still helping its franchisees control costs," she wrote. "America's response to our offer ... has been nothing short of overwhelming. But given that we have had over a million consumers respond in only three days, there are a handful of people who have reported some problems redeeming their free sandwich. We're asking our customers to please let us know right away if they have any problems by emailing millionsubs@quiznos.com, and we're working hard to address every issue very quickly."

BrandIndex, which tracks consumer perceptions of brands with daily online surveys on seven brand-health indicators, reports that Quiznos' value perception score rose from 9.5 to 18.7 between Feb. 17 and Feb. 23--the first day of the promotion--declined to 11.4 on Wednesday and rose again to 12.2 on Thursday.

Brand experts stressed the importance of coordination between corporate and franchisees and setting a cut-off date for free promotions, in particular. Crisis management consultant James E. Lukaszewski stressed the need for logistics planning that anticipates a "worst-case scenario. If fulfillment problems occur, he says, a company should stop extending the offer, apologize to consumers and perhaps consider extending the redemption time for consumers who already have coupons for a short, clear-cut time frame, such as 72 hours. The costs of food may have to be borne by the parent company, he notes.

However, given an adequate response from the brand, "I don't think people are going to hold grudges about a sandwich," Lukaszewski adds. "Quiznos is a strong brand. They're doing a good thing for consumers, and I think any marketer would agree that a campaign that generates a million responses is a success. This isn't a food contamination problem, which is an entirely different and much more serious scenario."