Procter & Gamble is fielding a new Pampers rewards program three years after a fulfillment glitch with a similar program.
Pampers’ Gifts to Grow launched in August. Parents register online, then collect point codes from packages of diapers to redeem for toys, books, DVDs, coupons for baby food and video-sharing service. Point values range from 20 points (for board books and smaller toys) to 400 points (for a tricycle or online video-sharing service). Diaper packages carry three to 10 points, depending on package size, product style and price point.
The program is designed for the convenience of parents. “They can collect points as they purchase and load them as they like, and set their profile to browse the catalog by age range,” said P&G spokesperson Lisa Jester. “We’ve also organized toys by different developmental levels” so parents can plan which toys will be age-appropriate by the time they’ve collected enough points.
Gifts to Grow, set to run through 2006, “had a huge uptick right away as packages went into the marketplace,” said Robb Lippitt, COO of ePrize, the agency that handles execution of Gifts to Grow for P&G. Pampers’ site, Pampers.com, “has seen a lot of activity, both in terms of new registrants and activity on accounts.”
Several agencies work on the program, which is managed in-house. Pleasant Ridge, MI-based ePrize handles program execution, including points collection and fulfillment; Arc Worldwide, Chicago, handles marketing. Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, is lead agency on advertising, which includes ongoing TV, print and online support.
Gifts to Grow has had a small hiccup in its first months: Some packages apparently have hit store shelves without point codes. The codes appear on tags inside specially marked packages — inside the outer bag, or on the outside of bags that are sold in multiples inside one box. But in some packages, the tags are blank. According to one Gifts to Grow member, P&G’s customer service department has handled her complaints by collecting SKU information over the phone, then e-mailing codes for her to add to her account online.
There is no widespread problem with codes, Jester said.
“Any time you’re shipping millions of packages, they won’t always be just as you would have them,” she said. “We hope people will call [customer service] if something isn’t right.”
The codes are placed inside packs to strike “an important balance,” Jester said. “We want people to be able to find them, but also to make the codes secure inside the package.”
P&G may have gotten “a few calls early on from people who bought bags [that were distributed] before the program started,” she added.
P&G overcame a true snafu in 2002, when its Pampers Perks loyalty program proved so popular with parents that P&G ran out of Fisher-Price toy premiums near the end of the program’s 12-month run. The company instead sent members a check for the retail value of the toys they had ordered, and refunded shipping and handling fees. For others, whose toys were on back order for several months, P&G sent a coupon booklet. P&G also added customer-service phone lines to handle the volume of calls it got from disgruntled parents. Its response to the problem earned Pampers a spot among PROMO’s Best Promoted Brands for 2002 (September 2002 PROMO).
Gifts to Grow is better insulated against over-demand: The online catalog lists the number of each toy left, so parents can plan accordingly.
“This is a new and very different program,” Jester said. “[Pampers Perks] ran more than two years ago, and a lot of technology and our consumers have changed; we’re starting fresh. We always look at where parents are and what’s helpful for them.”
EPrize can “move products in and out of the matrix easily, and adjust on the fly,” Lippitt said. “Our technology creates a scalability and manageability that wasn’t always available in the past.”
Consumer satisfaction is crucial because “this category has a huge word-of-mouth element,” Lippitt added. “People rely on friends who got their first to share their advice,” so the value to brand loyalty goes beyond the initial consumer.
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