I also want to blog about my concerns regarding the poor service I received from Air Transat from a marketer’s perspective.
I have found there are generally two types of people that enter sweepstakes as a hobby: 1) people who do it for the fun and 2) people for whom this hobby allows them to have things in life that their income bracket would never allow.
The first questions I want to pose to you would affect the second type of entrant. If you were on a very limited budget and upon attempting to exit Britain were told you had to pay an exorbitant amount to get your overweight luggage home, money that you didn’t have, what would you do? You couldn’t return any of the items you purchased. Unless you could add items to your friend’s luggage (if they happened to be underweight) you would have to throw them away. Imagine what a devastating end that would be to an amazing vacation, a wonderful win. Would you, at that point, only feel unfavourably towards Air Transat or would your feelings also turn sour towards any or all of the other sponsors?
The second set of questions focus on the experience level of the winner. How extensively in their life have they travelled and how many trips have they won previously? If you have travelled extensively, you would probably find it easier to navigate the many experiences and differences you encounter while on vacation. What if this was your first trip win? How you would feel towards air travel if a squished coach flight was your first airplane trip? How would you feel upon entering a one-two star hotel room? How would have handled the low security at the hotel? (There may have even been more “obstacles” to a perfect vacation that my travel experience helped me to avoid, overcome or not even come across.) Again, I ask; would you only feel unfavourably towards one sponsor/service provider, if at all, or would your feelings also turn sour towards all of the other companies involved in providing the prize package if you found yourself unsatisfied with the trip?
When I was in college (Marketing 101) we learned a happy customer, on average, would tell three other people about their wonderful experience. The disgruntled customer, on average, would tell eleven other people about their poor experience. Now, with the advent of Internet, if I am disgruntled, I won’t tell eleven people, I’ll tell eleven thousand people! (Pete Blackshaw wrote Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000.) As a marketer, does that fact change how you do business? How you follow-up with your clients? With your winners? Who you choose to partner with when running a promotion? It should. As a winner, how many people would you tell?
As a marketer, I advise all companies running a sweepstakes to not only do front-end marketing, but back-end marketing. Follow-up with your winners so you can ensure the positive message you originally intended to create by running a sweepstakes does not turn sour, or worse, run amok!
In general, I would not attempt to travel if I did not have money for those “extra” things that could possibly come up. I won a trip in which the breakfast was supposed to be included. However, when we got there, it was not paid for. We just went and got our own breakfast in the end. I didn’t even bother telling the sponsor because it was not a big deal for us in the grand scheme of things. Breakfast vs. a “free” trip!
And thanks, Carolyn, for the post. It makes me cautious of Air Transat. I definitely would not be happy with 1-2 star hotel. Your post reminds me that I might need to pay for my own upgrades for these trips that I win.
Since Boycott – Part 1 and having commented on it by asking if there were internet sites that could inform us of these “snags” beforehand, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about negativity/positivity, anger, and what to do in a situation like this. I worked on the air and in production for many years on local cable TV (with creative freedom but very small pay) and so I know the power of the media, which you mention in Boycott – Part 2 about the internet alone (reaching perhaps 11 million people). I was thinking that since you constantly do radio programs (and could bring up this topic), instead of a boycott, or perhaps in addition to one, couldn’t you write a statement to Air Transat telling them the inequity of being (unexpectedly) charged for carry-on luggage weight vs. then being able to shop within the airport and perhaps take on even 50 pounds of goods for free? And perhaps being faced with throwing away what you’d bought in another country? You could state who you were (your groups, your site, your radio programs, your books) and just tell the airline that you felt this is extremely unfair – and if you wanted to do so, much like a petition, you could have your readers and radio listeners “sign” your statement. I don’t think you could demand a change from them, but I know that I’d sign something like this, and I’m certain that many, if not all, of your followers and those that you’ve helped educate would! And companies don’t take group statement complaints lightly (I don’t know the legalities, if people would have to give their addresses) – how could they? — Secondly, about how a prizewinner would regard being squished in a seat, bad security at a hotel, stained and cramped quarters, etc. It DOES depend on the person (I notice the person who left two posts above me said they just paid for breakfasts after having been told they’d receive them, because of the excitement of the trip), since many people are thrilled just to have been chosen (for some people a trip like this could become the most special event of their lives, and they would tend to voice it in positive terms, I’d think). People used to luxuries might be aghast, but those not used to them might just be happy to be magically transported away from their everyday lives, which is what is usually at the crux of the “win a trip” experience, besides extras like meeting celebrities or being on movie sets (how many celebrities will remember all these contest winners with whom they’ve posed for pics, years later?). From the marketing side – yes of course those sponsoring the contest should be told of substandard treatment, and one would think they would “upgrade” for the next winner – but that of course all depends on the sponsor, what deals they’ve made with the airlines, what they feel they can afford to give away, etc. Your tack of not suffering in silence is a good one, but, I think, should be taken up a notch to a more formal level! What do you think?