A cheap Friday night out at Van Andel

Last week Wednesday one of my friends asked me if I wanted a Grand Rapids Griffins Hockey ticket for their weekend game. Like most other poor college students I asked how much it was going to cost me. "$5 tickets for the nose bleed sections and $1 beers," he explained. Not to mention the arena was also offering $1 hot dogs! Consequently, I told him yes and he bought me a ticket. I ended up going with a group of 8 people and met a bunch of other friends there. Dollar beers and dogs started at 6PM, an hour before the game. It ended 2 hours later at 8PM but that was plenty of time to mow down a few hot dogs and plenty of beers.
I was very surprised however, with the selection and size of the beers that Van Andel offered. When I approached the counter and asked what they were serving, they gave me three options: Budweiser, Bud Light, and Labatt’s! Not a bad selection for dollar beers! Furthermore, when they handed them over I expected the beers to be the tiny 12 ouncers in the plastic cups. However, they gave out 16 ounce beers (they were either 16 or 20, im not quite sure -all I know is that they definitely weren't 12)!
When I got up to my seats I realized that I really didn't feel like I was sitting in the nosebleed section. I hadn't been to a hockey game for the past 5 years, but I could see everything great! Even though we were sitting three rows from the very top I still felt very much into the game! And I'm not just saying that because of the beer!
On my way to refill on a few beers I walked past a McFadden's booth and stopped to see why they were giving out bracelets. The lady at the booth explained to me that McFadden's was offering $1 beers until 11PM that night, along with free cover! I went back up to my seats after receiving my bracelet and began to tell most of my friends. Needless to say we all ended up going to McFadden's after the game and continuing our dollar beer adventure. McFadden's only offered Miller Lite's but by the time we got there it didn't really bother us!
Either way the night was extremely cheap, especially for a weekend night. I'm not sure how often the Griffin's offer the dollar beers nights but the deal made for an awesome cheap night! I think they are offering the same deal Friday, November 14. Might as well go if you don't have anything else on your plate!

Also, if you go to the Griffin's website they are advertising lower bowl tickets for $10 on college nights. Furthermore, they also are advertising "library night," which means all you have to do is bring in your Grand Rapids or Kent County public library card and you can still purchase a $10 lower bowl ticket. The dates for these deals (along with dollar beers and dogs) include November 14, 21, 28 and December 5, 19, and 26. Hope to see ya there!

Crazy Promotions!

I was looking online for something to blog about and I came across and article that had to do with crazy promotions. I remembered blogging about Krispy Kreme and how they offered 5 or 10 cent coffee earlier this year, so I decided to use a search engine and look for crazy promotions that other retailers have done. Yes, the article I found was from 2006 but I found it so interesting that I had to blog about it.

In 2006, Gonigam's World Furniture Mall - near Chicago - started a promotion that offered customers up to $10,000 FREEEEEEE furniture if the Bears would shut out the Green Bay Packers. Now, I don't remember how bad the packers were that year, but hey, they had Favre at the time right? How could Green Bay get shut out?!?! Well, these store owners took their chances and the Bears ended up beating the Packers 26-0. Yeah, that's right...they had to honor their deal! Immediately after the win, over two hundred customers came in and cleared out about $300,000 worth of merchandise. Seems like these owners were screwed huh? However, fortunately the owner Randy Gonigam had insured the store with a company that specializes in prize reimbursement insurance.

Still, seems like a pretty stupid promotion right?!?! Well, according to the owner it turned out to be a success. As Randy Gonigam explained it, "Since then, we've seen a dramatic increase in traffic to our Web site. We had a slight uptick in business last weekend, but nothing dramatic," although Gonigam believes that the promotion will continue to reap long-term benefits. "An awful lot of the people we've talked to plan to buy more stuff."

I'm curious to see how the sales did a few months after the promotion and how the owners made out, considering the insurance rates/costs and the increased(or decreased) sales.

With the same article came another crazy promotion. I found this was extremely interesting also. Australian marketer Crumpler hosted a "Beers for Bags" event in the summer of 2006 in New York. Customers could trade bottles of Chimay, Brooklyn Lager and Guinness, for messenger bags, laptop cases and bean bag chairs.
As soon as Crumpler began accepting beer for merchandise, the company's two New York stores were flooded with customers, the owners said.

Furthermore, marketing manager for the company went on to say, "We have found that since 'Beer for Bags,' sales have increased in the two Crumpler stores in New York by about 10 percent, and by about 20 percent in specialty retailers around the country stocking Crumpler, which is totally awesome!" said Bianca Dillon. "Overall the 'Beer For Bags' promotion increased brand awareness of Crumpler in both New York and nationwide," Dillon said.


Basically, these owners bank on publicity as being the primary driver or growth and sales for the company. They hope to gain attention and bring customers in with their "crazy promotions." Hopefully it worked!

Five Cents!

In the midst of our global recession many retailers are struggling to make a profit this year. Enormous downsizing, layoffs, and restructuring have been several methods to keep companies up and running in 2008. However, there are companies (or franchises) who are using unique methods to attract customers and keep attitudes positive and healthy! I read an article this morning that explained that customers are in a mood these days, and that mood generally isn't very uplifting. Stores need to concentrate on getting customers into a better mood and create an atmosphere where the customer will respond with their emotions (happy emotions) and be willing to purchase items. As the article explained, "The retail teams who know, respect, and respond to the emotional needs of consumers at this scary time in American history will be the ones that make a meaningful connection, make sales, and most importantly, make a positive image for their brand.
Furthermore, a Krispy Kreme franchisee tried to accomplish these aspects of retailing this week by offering a unique sale of coffee. This particular Krispy Kreme began to offer their coffee for a whopping five cents! In rememberance of the Great depression, this was what customers were paying during the 1930's for a cup! An interesting marketing tool indeed, but franchisee Gerard Centioli chose this price point thinking it could possibly be the perfect promotion! This definitley is getting his stores attention and recognition which hopefully will lead to increased customer flow and profits.
As the article put it best, "the high-fat, high-carb, sugary sweet mainstays of the Krispy Kreme menu board happen to taste really good with the nickel beverage that’s pulling the people through the front door. It’s hard to believe that too many people are going to plunk down their five cents and not feel tempted or even obligated to purchase something else." After I read that exert, I totally agreed! How could you not purchase something else? After all, you only spent 5 cents! I believe this marketing tool will be very successful and the company should prosper from it! With a simple promotion, Centioli is cultivating feelings of gratitude and loyalty with his Krispy Kreme customers, and these good feelings about the brand will remain long after the world economy regains its balance.
The article talked about Centioli's 12 Krispy Kreme stores and how much good he is doing for the Brand. Centioli is creating such a positive brand image for Krispy Kreme, reminding people that Krispy Kreme was starting up during the Great Depression and recognizes peoples troubles and hardships. I thought this was a very interesting marketing method that not only attracts people to the stores but creates a postive brand image and good feelings!

Too small to fail?

In one of my banking classes our textbook talks about the TBTF (Too Big To Fail) syndrome. I find it quite ironic that throughout this global financial crisis we've been thrown into, many of the smaller financial institutions seem to be the strength of the industry. Is the TBTF syndrome still true? One secret of being a large financial institution is that you can take huge risks because you're too big to fail. If you hit craps and lose it all, don't worry, because you'll get bailed out. This may be true, however, throughout the past year or so several large financial institutions have been failing. Washington Mutual and CountryWide Financial are just of few of the large ones to have failed recently. These institutions weren't as lucky as AIG and some of the other large banking institutions that are planning to receive portions of the bailout plan from our government.

Is it right for our government to keep bailing these companies out? Is it right for our citizens (and our children) to have to deal with the burden of paying our government back through more taxation? It may not seem right, but it also may be essential in avoiding an even larger crisis and economic burden throughout the world. We do however, have to take some actions to eliminate these risks that these huge companies take! There has to be some kind of reform along with a new way of thinking.

Anyway, because of some of the risks these companies have taken they lead the path to a new concept. As I read in an article earlier today "If you act small and think big, you are too small to fail. You won't need a bailout because your business makes sense each and every day. You won't need a bailout because your flat organization (no matter how large it is) knows about problems long before they're too big to deal with." This is an interesting concept to think about and it seems very true in the midst of our global financial crisis. Furthermore, the media and the tech blogs glamorize businesses that act big. They write about the big checks VCs hand out and they lionize the organizations that make a splash. The untold story is in the organizations that are close to the customer, close to the product and close to each other. Acting small always pays off.