Krispy Kreme Donut Response

[decon]

Thank you for your interest in Krispy Kreme. Although we have
discontinued the inclusion of a free doughnut coupon in our Investor
Relations package, we hope the materials we provided to you were
informative in making your investment decision. Please visit the Investor
Relations section of our website at www.krispykreme.com for additional
information on Krispy Kreme.

[pennypinch]

Same w/ me.

[tseng99]

same here...same letter exactly...
oh well...i guess they were swamped with
investor requests and they took away the coupons.

[mjrogan]

Pretty lame, I got the same email. Oh well.

[bkrank]

Losers. Now I hate Kripsy Kreme.

[Nack]

I just can't understand some companies. I mean, was giving away a few thousand "free" doughnuts REALLY going to break them? If anything, it would have been great publicity, and they MIGHT have even got a few of us to invest after trying their doughnuts, even though that may not have been the initial reason for ordering the package. Someone in Krispy Kreme's investor relations department should be fired - not for depriving us of a few doughnuts, but for depriving Krispy Kreme of that sort of PR opportunity.

Nack

[debaire]

If you go to Krispy Kreme and say it's your first time there, they give you a free donut anyway.

[insanebrain]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Nack:
...it would have been great publicity, and they MIGHT have even got a few of us to invest after trying their doughnuts, even though that may not have been the initial reason for ordering the package.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You know they offered a free doughnut(s) to INTERESTED INVESTORS, not deal board freeloaders. Try to tell me you wouldn't shut the door if 1000's of people rush into your investor meeting to eat the free food.

[UnEasy-E]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Nack:
I just can't understand some companies. I mean, was giving away a few thousand "free" doughnuts REALLY going to break them? If anything, it would have been great publicity, and they MIGHT have even got a few of us to invest after trying their doughnuts, even though that may not have been the initial reason for ordering the package. Someone in Krispy Kreme's investor relations department should be fired - not for depriving us of a few doughnuts, but for depriving Krispy Kreme of that sort of PR opportunity.

Nack<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Puh-lease. That investor information packet is really expensive to produce. Kudos to KK for pulling the promotion and denying the Johnny-come-lately loophole-exploiting bottomfeeders (myself incl.)

[Nack]

Innovative companies are looking for PR opportunities like this, not looking for ways to save a few hundred bucks. I really could care less about the free doughnuts, but I think the marketing observation is valid. They aren't dealing with 1000 people flooding one store and demanding a free dozen doughnuts there. This would be spread over the whole chain of stores, and would have been a great way to get more people interested in their product. Jelly Belly, for example, gives away TONS of free jelly beans, to "bottom feeders" for just this purpose. They KNOW that 99.9% of people who go and fill out their survey do it for the free jelly beans. Do you REALLY think that they care, or even read, what new flavor you think would be "cool"? Of course not. They pay people $200k a year to think about that, and when they really want the consumer's opinion, they do focus groups to narrow the choices. Like I said, the doughnuts are not important to me, but as someone who has seriously studied marketing, I still think they missed a golden opportunity. If I were in charge of their marketing or investor relations department, and I could make 1592 people (made up number) who like doughnuts and live near one of my company's stores have a positive attitude about my company and product by giving them a box of doughnuts that cost my company $0.41 to produce each, you had better believe that I would do it. (Yes, $0.41 is a made up number, but you get the idea. If it isn't $0.41, then it is $0.61, or something similar).

Nack

[This message has been edited by Nack (edited 07-18-2000).]

[UnEasy-E]

Thanks for the primer, but we were talking about this promotion, not some pie-in-the sky free coupon giveaway. I seriously doubt the unit cost of 12 KK donuts is .61. A dozen costs $6 or so, that's 90% margins. No one gets those kinds of margins except Intel maybe, before AMD came into fashion.

Plus those investor books (I got one) cost at least $2 to make. That's too high of a customer acquisition cost.

OK, ditch the investor information and give away 1500 coupons for a free dozen. Who gets the coupons? How do you find people who don't know about KK? I think the word-of-mouth is so phenomenal that you risk giving coupons to people who are already fans. The word of mouth was huge for the Bay Area opening, that with a simple press release, that damn store still has lines going around the building and huge lines at 2AM for the drive through.

KK seems to choose spending their money on simple brand awareness. Boxes of KK are in Erin Brockovich and Fight Club. I however have never heard any jingle, seen any commercial, etc.

[Lore]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Nack:
Do you REALLY think that they care, or even read, what new flavor you think would be "cool"? Of course not.]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

WHAT?
They don't read those flavor suggestions? D'oh! After reading Harry Potter's first book I got some good ideas for new jelly beans!

[JumboJack]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by debaire:
If you go to Krispy Kreme and say it's your first time there, they give you a free donut anyway.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Muffdvr, hope to see you at the San Diego location in November for our free donut.
A Krispy Kreme store is currently in the works for Clairemont Drive in the San Diego area.* If everything stays on schedule, we hope to turn our HOT light on in November, 2000.

Bunch of other locations opening too. Go to: http://krispykreme.com/opening.htm

[haven]

What a crock of sh!t. I even e-mailed them and asked about it and they said they would get one right out to me in the mail.

[Chunky]

just to put things in perspective, i think we're talking more than a 1000 peeps asking for free donuts here. gotapex? has over 3000 registered users, and there are plenty that just stop by to read and grab a deal w/o posting. and who knows how many investor packages each person is requesting?
and there are other boards out there, stick this to the original market share they were going for. since it's an investor packet, i'm gessing chumps like us out for freebies don't exactly fall into the investor market segment. u should kno that if u took marketing.

Chunky