RGKfit
01-25-2005, 06:48 PM
When the things people want are completely contradictory to each other, what do companies do? What do the marketing gurus do then, besides pull their hair out in little tufts? Obviously, they just shrug their shoulders and offer customers promotions like this:
Chow down on fast food - get a FREE GYM MEMBERSHIP!
Yes, you read that right. According to a recent Associated Press article, the second-largest fast-food chain in the nation, Yum Brands, Inc., is partnering with gym giant Bally Total Fitness to offer a free 4-week membership to anyone who brings in a receipt in any dollar amount from one of the nation's more than 18,000 Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Long John Silver's, or A&W restaurants. Initiated by Bally's, in the wake of New Years and it's most common resolution (losing weight, of course) this promotion makes me wonder what the fast-food marketers know that the gym marketers don't...
By all outward appearances, this move would seem to look very poorly on these restaurants - since the first thing the gym personnel are going to do once a mark's in the door, receipt in hand, is tell him or her to cut out the fast food. After all, they want folks to lose weight and see results from their free trial membership so they'll sign a long-term contract. Naturally, they're going to try to spin a person's propensity for fast food into one of the reasons why they need to join a gym.
But my question is this: Why doesn't the #2 fast food chain in the U.S. care about the millions in sales they're going to lose if this promotion takes off? There can be only one answer: Their focus research must indicate that whether they're going to the gym or not, people will still hit the drive-thru - perhaps even using the fact that they've joined a gym as justification for splurging on pizza, burritos, or French fries.
In other words, somehow the fast-food folks know that their money's in the bank no matter what. They might as well have whatever millions of dollars Bally's is willing to pay them to promote their gyms - plus the money from the sale it took to generate the proof-of-purchase needed to collect the free memberships in the first place. They've got us either way, and they know it.
As ironic as this all is, what's really funny (tragic, actually) is that both gyms and fast food restaurants will likely put you in the same place: The coronary ward or the morgue.
/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Chow down on fast food - get a FREE GYM MEMBERSHIP!
Yes, you read that right. According to a recent Associated Press article, the second-largest fast-food chain in the nation, Yum Brands, Inc., is partnering with gym giant Bally Total Fitness to offer a free 4-week membership to anyone who brings in a receipt in any dollar amount from one of the nation's more than 18,000 Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Long John Silver's, or A&W restaurants. Initiated by Bally's, in the wake of New Years and it's most common resolution (losing weight, of course) this promotion makes me wonder what the fast-food marketers know that the gym marketers don't...
By all outward appearances, this move would seem to look very poorly on these restaurants - since the first thing the gym personnel are going to do once a mark's in the door, receipt in hand, is tell him or her to cut out the fast food. After all, they want folks to lose weight and see results from their free trial membership so they'll sign a long-term contract. Naturally, they're going to try to spin a person's propensity for fast food into one of the reasons why they need to join a gym.
But my question is this: Why doesn't the #2 fast food chain in the U.S. care about the millions in sales they're going to lose if this promotion takes off? There can be only one answer: Their focus research must indicate that whether they're going to the gym or not, people will still hit the drive-thru - perhaps even using the fact that they've joined a gym as justification for splurging on pizza, burritos, or French fries.
In other words, somehow the fast-food folks know that their money's in the bank no matter what. They might as well have whatever millions of dollars Bally's is willing to pay them to promote their gyms - plus the money from the sale it took to generate the proof-of-purchase needed to collect the free memberships in the first place. They've got us either way, and they know it.
As ironic as this all is, what's really funny (tragic, actually) is that both gyms and fast food restaurants will likely put you in the same place: The coronary ward or the morgue.
/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif