Petco is Feelin' the love from recent Valentine's Day promotion

This article, Petco is feelin' the love from recent Valentine's day promotion, published March 20, 2008 shows us the benefit when a company puts on a successful promotion.  Petco had a Valentine's Day promotion that asked consumers to review and rate pet products from the store's website, in return a $500 gift certificate to Petco was awarded.  I don't know how they chose a winner, but the promotion resulted in a tenfold increase of online reviews of Petco's products.  

This was a very successful promotion for Petco as well as the lucky winner.  Pet care is a huge undertaking for a family and 500 extra dollars could relieve the family of some of that burden and maybe the family pet could get some special gifts they otherwise wouldn't.  Pets have also become like family members in many people's homes, and Petco is one of the leading pet product suppliers in the country.  Reviews and feedback is important for the pet industry because the toys need to be very safe due to the chewing and the type of wear and tear they face.  This promotion aids Petco in spreading its name and products as well as consumers with the cash prize and feedback from other pet lovers on the quality of products.

This promotion also produced a 300% increase in spending by the consumers who visited the special contest website opposed to the ones that didn't.  This is a huge number for Petco and gives them a good reason to continue the promotion in future years.  Petco also planned very well for this promotion.  They got a team together that constructed the new page of the website and added special features.  They added a new review system of hearts instead of paws for the Valentine's Day theme, they added a special thank you page to pop up once you completed a review, and the new web page was easily promoted in packing slips and in Sunday circulations.  All of these elements led to a very successful promotion for Petco.

The whole business of promotions is what is going on now and what companies are doing to stand out, however I've never read a follow-up article about how successful the promotion actually was and if it was even worth it.  This article shows that promotions can be hugely successful for the company while benefitting the public.  Practically every post to date I've wondered out load about how successful the promotion will be, and finally in my last week of posting I find an article that actually discusses that topic.  I think that every company that has a promotion should have to make a statement and reveal their successes or downfalls.  This way other companies can get feedback on what to stay away from, what works or doesn't.  The industry should pick up a "people helping people" process instead of wasting time and money on tactics that don't work.