Has anyone seen an A/B conversions report on mail-in rebates vs instant savings? If it doesn’t exist then one of the myriad research firms out there needs to get this done post haste.
I am in the process of going through yet another 6 month phone+email battle to get my rebate on a product, and yet again it’s about the principle of it and not necessarily the dollars involved. Sure the dollars would be great but there’s no way I am going to let the Company win in this game even though we know they cheat.
So, I can’t even count the number of hours I have wasted in my life trying to get $25 here, $50 there, or worse go through the whole form filling, SKU clipping mail in process only to discover I didn’t qualify for some nonsense reason and no longer had the original paperwork since I had to mail it in the first time, so I couldn’t contest and resubmit it. My absolute favorite was the one rebate check that took so long to get to me that it had actually expired prior to making it into my hands. The hate was legendary.
Then I started thinking about a recent report I just read about CAPTCHAs and how while they might reduce spam, they actually adversely impact conversions. Then I made the jump to mail-in rebates vs instant savings. Do the supposed benefits to companies of the mail-in process actually reduce overall sales because we, the consumers, are sick and tired of mail-ins and simply refuse to buy product X? NOTE: lower prices would naturally be best for us consumers but without the call to action the marketers simply think that we the sheeple won’t buy entirely based on price.
Now, we ALL know that companies use mail-in rebates for the simple reason that they believe they will sell more of X when the consumer anticipates getting money back, but that they’re counting on a percentage of those users to either never submit the rebate, fail to meet all the requirements, or never receive/deposit the check. That results in said companies increasing their margins on said product, this is the fix, the cheat, the vig, whatever you want to call it (I personally prefer vig).
My point is simple, could these companies actually be losing sales because it’s a mail-in rebate? What would happen if the company severed ties with the company handling the rebate and thus saved those administrative costs, then offered an instant savings so the call to action was there but just no headache for the consumer. I would venture to guess that sales on product X could actually increase or at least stay the same, and margins would improve since the transaction is a one and done situation versus months of calls, emails, and support overhead.
Can one of you marketing research companies do some A/B testing and get back to me please?
Ok, feeling a little better now but I would be thrilled if mail-in rebates went away for good. Any takers?
My hate towards the mail-in #rebates process is legendary right now #rebatehell #fb Read more:
August 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment
