The problem that we are experiencing with this offer is that there is no way for us (or for the consumer) to verify that they will indeed receive the gift card. In addition, at least one consumer has taken it upon themselves to call Lands End, only to be told that it is a "bogus" offer. When I wrote to my Lands End online marketing contact about this, here's what he said:
"Welcome to my world. You can assure the customer that the offer is valid and that yes the Lands' End Customer Service rep was unaware of this offer. Because our affiliate program is the only group in the entire company that is running this offer, our rep's across the company will think that the offer is bogus. It is up to me to somehow convey to each of these rep's that this offer is a valid one."
We typically like to test our offers before posting them to make sure that everything works properly. In this case, we won't have verification until October, because the gift card will be mailed by Lands End 4-6 weeks upon order completion (and that is ONLY if the customer follows the instructions and shops through the exclusive link on our web site).
The bottom line is that this is a tough promotion to sell, as it involves trust on a number of levels:
- We need to trust that Lands End will send out the gift card as outlined in the offer
- The consumer needs to trust that the offer is legitimate
- Lands End needs to trust that the consumer will follow the instructions, shop through our link and make the minimum purchase amount required
We'll see how this goes. I'm disappointed so far that we received a complaint about the offer. I can also understand how a consumer would be wary, because there is no mention of the gift card promotion anywhere during their shopping experience.
How do we proceed? We definitely want to have a promotion for Lands End for our visitors, and this is the only one they have available. We'll see how this goes for the rest of September and will evaluate things after that. I hope it goes well...
If you come across this post after 9/30/07, you can always check for current online coupons for LandsEnd.com. This offer may be extended. If it is not, just know that coupons are generally not available for landsend.com. They usually only have sales running.
A huge "thank you" to the customer that reported the temporary error with our Lands End coupon link. I just got off the phone with my contact at Lands End, and the error has been fixed. The LandsEnd.com web site is going through a redesign, and that is what caused the problem.
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