Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as the old saying goes.
But if you are the inventor, pioneer or however you want to call it, would you be flattered if the imitation isn’t even at par with your idea or concept? I expect imitation to be at least parity in all aspects, if not even better than the original. Otherwise, the imitation is a waste of time and resources.
Okay, I am talking about Mercury Drug’s Sukli sa Suki Promo which runs from March 1 to July 31, 2010.
The promo concept isn’t new. It is your usual raffle promo aiming to encourage customers to increase volume of purchase in Mercury Drugs. For every PhP 300 purchase, customers are entitled to a raffle ticket. You fill it out, tear the claim stub and drop your entry in drop box.
And since the concept isn’t new at all, I was expecting Mercury Drug to have learned from the previous promotions that are similar in nature (read: remember Pepsi 349 Number Fever fiasco?) but to my disappointment, it is even worse, in my opinion.
First, whoever thought of giving away six Mistsubishi L300 Exceed did not do his homework. The prize isn’t at all inviting. If I were a Mercury Drug customer, I would have wanted them to give away, say PhP 500,000 worth of medicines. That would be more relevant to me as a drugstore patron.
Second, the raffle tickets are printed on very thin sheets of groundwood paper, font in very small prints giving you very little space for the information they are asking you to put in. And yet, they are asking you to write legibly.
And finally, the raffle tickets don’t even have a ticket number. This, I think, is the biggest booboo of this raffle promo. I asked the drugstore clerk if I should keep the other half of the stub. I was surprised they actually said I should keep it in case I win. I left the branch scratching my head.
Okay, this is not to demean Mercury Drug or the persons behind Sukli sa Suki Promo, but come on. Haven’t you done some research, not even an informal one?
personally, i don’t think mercury was trying to imitate a certain promo. raffle draws are the oldest and most used trick in the book. btw, mechanics of this mercury drug promo and pepsi’s 349 are not the same.
Hi Dana, thank you for dropping by. Just a few clarification.
1. Yes, MDC’s promo is not imitating a particular promo but raffle draws are as old as only God knows. So the point is, they should have done it better.
2. Yes, Sukli sa Suki promo is different from Pepsi’s Number Fever and I wasn’t actually saying they are similar but I was refering to the Number Fever to point out or emphasize how important controls are in promos like this.
=)
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