How much of a sucker do you feel like when you're buying something on-line and there's a space to enter a 'promotional code.'
That means that someone with the secret sequence of numbers and letters is getting it cheaper than you.
I've seen websites that provide you with kracks. Illegal serial numbers that unlock commercial software. I wondered if there are websites dedicated to providing promotional code kracks.
The answer is - Yes.
Yo Paul! ... share some of them kracks so we can all be ... krackheads.
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | July 17, 2005 at 11:39 PM
Yeah, Paul. You such a tease. So, are you going to share with the rest of us?
Posted by: Tom Kane | July 18, 2005 at 10:16 AM
Paul
That was mean... There are sites such as techbargains.com that have some, but are not dedicated to them.
Please do tell.
T
Posted by: Tom | July 18, 2005 at 10:18 AM
Don't hoarde the special codes all to yourself!
Or is this some underground marketing scheme and you're about to launch a new site dedicated to such things....?
Posted by: Jeff Clark | July 18, 2005 at 10:22 AM
Dudes... (as the kids are saying these days)
I ain't no hack. Google "promotional codes" yourselves!
And, no Jeff... this isn't a gorilla marketing scheme. Last time I tried that... the beasts just sat there picking ticks off of each other.
Posted by: Brand Examiner Paul | July 18, 2005 at 11:08 AM
Why make finding hacks so hard or random? A smart marketer would "leak" a promotional code to the public. Stuff like that has a tendency to become viral.
Posted by: Dustin | July 18, 2005 at 11:54 AM
Then again ... a smart, savvy, and creative marketer wouldn't resort to leaking a promotional code to motivate people to buy something. Instead, the cracker-jack marketer would ensure the product/service itself is remarkable enough to motivate one to buy.
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | July 18, 2005 at 12:09 PM
Agreed John. What we're discussing may be the difference between average/smarter/and smartest.
Of course, the world is full of marketers who aren't in a position to affect the remarkability of their product or service. Whether by their own fault or as a victim of the system, for those sad souls we should offer some recourse.
Posted by: Dustin | July 18, 2005 at 01:40 PM
and to that end ... positioning a 'sale price' as "you pay what we pay" is a creative and savvy way to SCREAM LOW PRICES without saying it.
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | July 18, 2005 at 03:42 PM
Yes, that is the result of viewing marketing as a promotional vehicle, not as a source of product/service/corporate innovation. We're not fellow sojourners, we're sprinters given a baton on the final leg of the race.
Posted by: Dustin | July 18, 2005 at 04:52 PM
Actually, this mini-rant is good timing. I work for someone who has a daily national talk-radio show. One of the ways to listen to the show is to stream it on the web. That feed has gaps where local radio adds ads. So we plug in our streaming-feed-only ads, since web listeners won't hear those local ads.
Just yesterday I was contemplating a special offer only available to those who stream the show. Just as an experiment to see what kind of response I'd get. But doing that meant the customers would have to enter...you guessed it - a special promotional code if ordering online.
I like offering channel-specific deals to test response. But I understand what you mean about the promotional codes space. I hate them too. Is there a better alternative, or do we ditch offering those things to anyone online? It seems to me that my best chance of making a sale - for people already listening online - is going to be through an online store. And at this time, our e-commerce system doesn't allow me to "hide" that code space.
Posted by: Darrin Dickey | July 19, 2005 at 09:26 AM
Hi guys
I wouldn't say I feel a sucker when I see the words promotional code - I look at it as though they're laying down a challenge for me. A few months back I was completing the purchase of a VoIP phone from the UK online retailer Firebox.com. When I was about to fill in my details I saw the magic words: "promotional code" - within a couple of minutes I had been sent a Tiscali promotional code giving me £5 off the item. A small amount of money you might say but boy! did it make me feel good. The only problem now is the amount of time I spend trying to find the damned codes for other products!
Posted by: Alun John | July 20, 2005 at 09:24 AM
By the way, "gorilla" marketing is probably a strategy for getting more people to the zoo. "Guerilla" marketing probably has more to do with underground marketing tactics.
Posted by: Matt | July 28, 2005 at 12:51 AM
Matt - thanks for the clarification... no matter how you spell it... it's still all about monkeys.
Posted by: Brand Examiner Paul | July 28, 2005 at 01:51 AM
Hi,
I want to know more thing about promotional code and it's use.Let stand my question.How many digit does it have?What is promotional code means?Can you show me a sample for instant like 2663 or something like that.
Posted by: kidist | August 30, 2005 at 03:48 AM
If you go to MyBargainBuddy.com, they list new coupon codes every day for the best deals on online purchasing and I've bought MANY items at terrific bargain by using their codes on a regular basis. Also, if you sign up for the newsletter, it will alert you every day to the best bargains on various sites such as Overstock.com and all the major online retailers - and provide you with coupon codes to get add'l savings up to 40-75% off in alot of cases.
Posted by: Victoria | May 01, 2007 at 01:14 AM
these coupon promotional codes have really make the shopping easy as it seems from this article..the online shopping is the new trend and one can do a good saving from them
Posted by: ethan1066 | January 28, 2010 at 01:59 AM