Rowena Lam's Blog

Our fellow classmate, Sang-Ik, expressed his opinions on MCD’s deceiving discount promotion in his recent blog post. I completely agree with his view that MCD is taking advantage of consumers’ unconscious habit of perceiving the advertisement as a discount promotion for getting 2 Snack Wraps while it is merely a price for 2 units of the product.

There is a similar example of deceiving discount promotion:

Logitech D-pads “negative” discount

Promotional discount aims to stimulate sales. It creates value especially to price-conscious customers. However, if discount promotion is not appropriately implemented, customers who discovered the false discount might consider the company as despicable. It immediately poses a threat to the company’s brand image and customers’ loyalty.

You might say it is just a human error or typo that no one should make a great deal out of it. However, since customer is always the centre of considerations in value-based marketing, I believe the companies bear the responsibility of inspecting the discount tags to avoid any chance of misleading. Furthermore, for those who think the companies purposefully deceive customers using the trick, might question whether the companies have considered the ethical implications of their decisions on the society.

Is it a mistake or conspiracy?

Should customers trust or doubt?