Warren Buffet is pretty awesome for an old dude. He's worth thousands of millions and yet his most extravagant purchase ever was buying Dairy Queen because he liked it and didn't want it to change. Always a shrewd businessman, he made Ted Koppel interview him in a DQ and I wouldn't be surprised if he's got a hand in the chain's latest promotional gambit.
To help sales, DQ, like KFC, has recently turned to a permanent value menu it calls Sweet Deals. Unlike KFC, McDonald's, Wendys and others, DQ's value package isn't based on a dollar but on a food matrix. From the nine items on the menu, pick any two for three dollars, three for four dollars and four for five dollars.
When Sweet Deals was announced at the beginning of the month, blogs quickly pounced on the fact that the deals weren't always so sweet. In some cases, customers were getting charged more than the normal price.
Having faced bloggers' scorn, DQ is now trying to win them over with gift certificates to people who blog about Sweet Deals. If there ever was a narcissistic, chatty bunch that loves free stuff it's bloggers (as one of them, I say that in the kindest sense), which is what makes this promotional so brilliant, if not exactly ethical.
DQ sent the following e-mail to bloggers telling them to, "write a
blog post...about what deal you'd make with us to try our Sweet Deals
for free. Once you've done this, email blog@idq.com with a link to your post and your mailing address and we'll ship you a gift card."
Instead
of paying for an advertising campaign to promote sweet deals, DQ is
asking bloggers to be it's public relations people with some bloggers
already complying. Will these bloggers be effective for DQ? I'm
inclined to think not. I don't judge anyone who goes after the gift
card but the best blogs tend to be personal ones with people commenting
on their life and lives around them. Shilling for DQ is the digital equivalent of wearing a sandwich-board around your neck.
But hey, that's my opinion versus Warren Buffet's. In other words, count on this promotion being an amazing success.
For those wondering, I am not turning this post in for the contest. I
didn't say anywhere what deal I'd make for a gift card. However, if
you'd like to claim this post as your own to DQ and win the gift card,
go right ahead. I'll even make it easy for you: I'd deal a carton of
cigarettes, a shiv, toilet wine and my cellmate's body for a free sweet deals gift
certificate. It's got slogan written all over it.
