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Littlewoods should take responsibility for its own campaigns

Posted in Marketing, Direct Marketing, Nikki Preston, Latest reporters' blogs October 26th, 2007 by Nikki Preston

Almost a year after Threshers got stung by a coupon campaign, Littlewoods has fallen into the same trap, but instead of taking it on the chin like the wine retailer it is demanding its customers pay the money back.

The retailer’s plan to give a small number of customers £25-off coupon backfired on them and the offer got distributed through chat rooms and consumer-saving websites, resulting in it getting into the hands of 3,000 consumers.

Instead of taking responsibility for a campaign that went haywire and making sure it doesn’t happen again, Littlewoods is now asking consumers to own up and pay them back some two months after the event.

It resembles a David vs Goliath type situation and seems ridiculously unfair on bargain hunting consumers who may not have been aware of the deal’s limitations and may have also only purchased items because of the incentive.

Surely the onus is on Littlewoods and it needs to take the backlash too. I wonder what Trinny and Susannah would do…