When you launch a marketing program – expect success.  Cause if you’re not ready for it, it’ll kill you.  Just ask Dr. Pepper.

In case you missed the news, and I would have if Mary Ann Rogers (our new ‘voice of the Millenials’) hadn’t told me, the makers of Dr. Pepper are in hot water with heavy metal band Guns N’ Roses over a seemingly failed promotion.

In truth, the promotion was a success – A BIG ONE – but it’s gonna cost Dr. Pepper a lot of business.  Here’s the story:

In March of this year, Dr. Pepper offered every person in America a free can if Guns N’ Roses released their new album by the end of this year.  This album has been 14 years in the making and been delayed countless times.  The odds seemed against them making the deadline. (Click here for more on the subject.)

To the shock of music fans world wide, Axl Rose did in fact release the album, Chinese Democracy, this year. And as a good marketing citizen, Dr. Pepper stepped up and put the word out to visit their website on Nov. 23 to register for a coupon redeemable for their free can of soda.

Unfortunately for Dr. Pepper, their web site servers couldn’t handle the increased traffic and crashed under the demand, leaving Dr. Pepper lovers parched and angry.

Even though Dr. Pepper worked to correct the issue-extending the registration deadline an extra day and creating a toll-free phone number for coupon redemption-the whole experience left an unappealing taste in the mouths of many Dr. Pepper and Guns N’ Roses fans alike.

Less than a month later, both of their Wikipedia pages already feature info on the issue.

Viral promotions such as this giveaway are designed to spread across social networks with the ultimate goal of capturing information on loyal customers and attracting new ones.  The trouble with a promotion that actually “goes viral” is that you can’t control the message once it’s out there.

In this case Dr. Pepper wasn’t ready to handle success.  Instead of a purely positive mojo, they’ve created a backlash that can wipe out and reverse that momentum.

For your business, there’s a really good idea buried in this story.  Promotions, properly handled and prepared for, can be a very cost effective strategy to solidify and build customer relationships.  Just remember, the Internet puts everything on the permanent record.

Be careful what you wish for…and be prepared to get it.

Posted by: Steve Banis