Buy Fast or Die Tryin'

In the wake of Puma’s successful “fastest purchase” campaign, which enabled shoppers to get higher discounts if they bought sneakers quickly, and Nike Mexico offering runners the opportunity to redeem their kilometers into currency to buy new shoes, Guatemalan shoe retailer Meat Pack just launched a funny, cutting-edge discount initiative. The amount of the promotion directly depended on shoppers’ ability to physically surpass themselves. The faster they ran, the cheaper it got.

To increase loyalty and drive sales, Meat Pack came up with a brilliant, irreverent promotional campaign addressing its core audience: hardcore sneaker fans, also known as sneakerheads. To promote the new discount, they created Hijack, an enhancement to the official Meat Pack app already used by customers.

Using GPS tracking technology, the app was able to recognize sneakerheads each time they crossed the threshold of an official competitor’s store selling brands such as Adidas, Nike, or Reebok. The app then triggers a special notice, giving the shopper the chance to earn a discount. But to make the promotion a bit more difficult and entertaining, the discount starts at 99% and decreases by a percentage point with each second that goes by, forcing shoppers to hurry toward the Meat Pack store to stop the countdown and get a good deal. Every time a discount gets redeemed, the shopper’s Facebook status automatically updates, informing his friends about the promotion to make the campaign go viral.

This idea proves to be relevant in several ways:

• First, the idea is totally consistent with the very nature of the products sold, leveraging sport values, such as performance or competitive spirit, to attract shoppers. The social media dimension also helped generate a viral competitive attitude between shoppers.
• Second, it manages to turn something quite serious (getting people to the store through promotion) into a genuine game, by creating an enjoyable shopping experience. Discount is considered a reward in itself, something you earn and deserve.
• To a larger extent, Meat Pack managed to create urgency to buy, making the most out of the FOMO (fear of missing out) mindset that is commonly shared by consumers especially among younger generations. FOMO is the constant anxiety over missing out on something important. Due to their temporary status, discounts can easily stir up such a feeling and help brands urge shoppers to rush into stores to get a better deal.
• Last, this insightful Meat Pack initiative includes a rather aggressive guerilla component, as already hinted by the name of the application: Hijack. Such a tactic enables them to capture shoppers by stealing them from competitors. It also rings a bell; McDonald’s China did something quite similar by accepting rivals’ coupons in its restaurants during a week in 2010.

Fun fact: during the Meat Pack initiative, one shopper got a record-breaking 89% discount. Good news for the retailer, not all sneakers addicts are natural-born athletes.

  

 Contrbitued by Jonathan Kagane, Integer Paris