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iTunes and 7-11: A match made in heaven

Oh, thank heaven for 7-11’s latest campaign. They’ve teamed with Apple for one of my favorite promotions ever: buy a 32oz or bigger Slurpee, get a free song from iTunes — every time. I love Slurpees. I love iTunes. For about $1.50, I’m getting a 32oz Slurpee and a free $0.99 download. That means that assuming I was going to buy a song from iTunes in the near future (safe assumption, I’m an iTunes addict), I’m getting a slurpee and probably some 400 unwanted calories for about $0.50. That is good stuff. They even introduced a black cherry lemonade flavor that’s great — perfect for the summer heat.

The campaign may not be sending iTunes downloads or Slurpee sales skyrocketing, but it’s getting me to buy more Slurpees. I was already familliar with iTunes, so a free “introduction” isn’t a selling point to me; I already know iTunes rocks. And I also already know Slurpees are quite the tasty summer treat. I’ve bought more Slurpees, but I’m sure those downloads aren’t coming free to 7-11. All in all, I’d call it good brand awareness but probably not a big sales boost.

Brand awareness has its merits, though, so I certainly am not questioning the campaign. My question is in the implementation. I was expecting 7-11 to do a usual scratch-off or peel-off — peel off a sticker and get a redemption code, or maybe a better prize for a few lucky people. But I was surprised to see they have the redemption code printed directly on the Slurpee cup. Enter the code in the cup into iTunes, get your free download.

Once, in high school, I threw out a Slurpee cup because the Slurpee looked all watery and I didn’t want it anymore, so I got another cup for another flavor. The guy behind the register got upset, because he said they did inventory on Slurpees based on the number of cups missing, and people throwing out cups messed up their counts. He said next time to either rinse out the cup, or if I didn’t want a Slurpee at all anymore, to give it to him. After that, though, I was just more surreptitious about throwing out my Slurpee cups. (In high school. I didn’t realize the importance of inventory counts.) My point? They never caught me throwing out a cup again. So 7-11 employees probably aren’t going to be carefully monitoring the Slurpee stand for possible Slurpee fraud.

I’m surprised they have such a low-security method. There would seem to be tons of ways of getting extra downloads. A cameraphone in the Slurpee department? “Accidentally” grabbing two cups instead of one, and stacking them?

I wouldn’t do any of those things, but it rides along a blurry moral line, much like piracy. It becomes easier to justify the theft. Most people realize theft is wrong, but if the justification combined with odds of getting caught are right, many people who wouldn’t kill a fly might commit an act of theft.

People who wouldn’t steal a bag of chips because it has a cash value might steal a cup — it’s just a one-cent plastic cup, right? Those same people might download a song of KaZaa, though, or borrow a friend’s software. And if you take a picture of the cup, I mean, you’re not even stealing from the store! The next person can still use the cup, and get the Slurpee they paid for. They just wouldn’t get their free song on the off chance they happened to use iTunes. Or maybe the 7-11 is in a poor part of town; those people buying the Slurpees won’t have iPods and iTunes and computers, so the song would just be wasted, right?

Of course, none of those things make it right. But I could see otherwise law-abiding citizens doing it. I’m sure 7-11 and Apple are aware of human nature, and it surprises me that they would let there be such a risk for fraudulent redemptions.

Sun June 26th, 2005 10:53 pm

Filed under Advertising & Marketing, Business