Marketing 101

If nothing else, I remember one thing from my Marketing 101 class in college. If you are going to run a national campaign introducing a new product you better have it available in the store when customers come in and want to buy it. The quintessential example of this is the 1988 Oldsmobile campaign 'Not Your Father's Oldsmobile'. Not only did this campaign destroy the brands' dedicated customer base but when the ads began to air, the new models were not yet available on the showroom floor. This marketing debacle is typically credited as the beginning of the end for the Oldsmobile brand, which GM eventually shuttered in 2004 (disclosure: my father drove Oldsmobile's for my entire childhood and I hated every last one of them).

Today I was out running errands during lunch and stopped by Dunkin' Donuts' to grab a cup of coffee. I got my coffee and as I was turning to leave the person behind me ordered a pumpkin latte (I'm personally not a big fan of Dunkin' Donuts' lattes but that is not the point). The counter person informed her that they did not have that flavor and asked if she would like vanilla.

So it is the day before Halloween (mischief night if you are from NJ), Dunkin' Donuts has been plastering the airways with their 'Pumpkin' commercials for weeks, the store I am in even has a pumpkin latte poster in the window; and they don't have any to sell. Seriously? I was instantaneously transported back in time to Marketing 101, thanks for the trip down memory lane Dunkin' Donuts.