The Factory Blogger...

Hell hath no fury than a pie fan scorned.

I'm sure you all have a friend or colleague whose job it seems to be to scour the internet looking for interesting offers to forward to you.

Occasionally, some of them are quite interesting and one morning last week, I received an email offering me a free pie from a certain well known high street bakers shop. A great idea, I thought - well done to whoever thought up that promotion.

Now, I love my pies and I immediately clicked the link to claim my free pie. After I had filled in my details I was greeted with a message informing me that my 'voucher had already been claimed' - a technical hitch, I'm sure.

Needless to say I was slightly annoyed.

Shortly after, the very same email did the rounds again but this time with a long string of angry pie fans' comments, all venting their spleens about the promotion (or lack of it).

The message of this story is, always test your promotions before you release them to the masses, especially where technology is involved. What might start off as a seemingly fail-safe way to win favour can sometimes have the opposite effect and promote negative feelings toward your brand.