This little free offer by a Pizza Hut Franchisee in Melbourne Australia has raised an eyebrow or two. A Pizza hut branch in Mt Waverley decided that it needed a boost in sales so it decided to offer a deal which included 1 free small animal to customers who bought 10 pizzas.

Free Gift Offer With every 10 Pizzas

The Pizza Hut Franchise located in Mt Waverley decided to do something dramatically different to most normal special promotions. In conjunction with a local pet store, it offered a free small pet with every 10th pizza that a customer purchases. Now I can only assume that the definition of a small pet would be either a hamster or a guinea pig. As you can appreciate many people were outraged by this idea.

Personally speaking I would have been happy with just a free can of coke with every 10 pizzas purchased, or better still just a little freebie promotional keyring would have been equally as nice. Why anyone would want to receive a free hamster, would be beyond me.

The spokesperson from Pizza Hut Head Office to their credit responded very quickly to control the damage and issued a statement that they did not endorse this promotion.

Careful Marketing Prudence Required

Giving out animals for free is by any definition a risky marketing strategy. There are many concerns that will be raised for the safety and welfare of pets already. What makes this particular promotion an even worse idea, is to associate small animals with pizzas. This combination is not exactly very appealing to most people.

When marketing take care and think about how your customers and guests will react to any promotion or advertising activity that you may wish to conduct. What may seem like a good idea to you may be quite offensive to others.

Article first seen on website: http://www.smartcompany.com.au/marketing/43770-hamster-with-your-hawaiian-pizza-hut-in-damage-control-after-franchise-offers-small-animals-with-pizza-deal.html#