Sometimes a win for someone is a fail for someone else. When the Michigan Wolverines took on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights the game, if you can call it that, was a beatdown. Michigan won 78-0. This was not a small school or anything, this was a conference opponent, and Rutgers was at home. But that win for Michigan was a loss from one local business:
This turned into two fails for Ruth’s Chris.
- They were about to lose a lot of money. A promotion that sounded like a good idea turned out to be extremely costly. As one Facebook commentator said:
- They backed down. Either through initial error or fear Ruth’s Chris revised the post during the game to limit the promotion to 50% off. This is where the real fail came. This is was not missed by the social media world at large. This was a trending topic around the US this weekend. There was lots of backlash on the internet.Â
Before your next promotion, be sure to count the cost and double check the rules. This could have been a huge win if they had owned their mistake and took advantage of it promotionally. They could have achieved this by doing news stories and possibly inviting the team for dinner. You could have made a video about the craziness of the next week as you honored the offer. This could have been a feel-good story, instead there are lots of angry customers.
