I received about 10,000 miles from them, and I'm expecting about 8000 more.

I ate and/or threw out a bunch of marginal food, and some downright bad ideas.

But you know, we JUST LOVE the honey roasted turkey cold-cuts. We still buy 4 or 5 packages a week. And the microwave popcorn is great too.

Con-Agra accomplished their goal, as I tried lots of products I wouldn't have, dismissed most of them, but became a loyal purchaser of a couple.

It was worth the money to them, believe me.

For the Healthy Choice fans - there are some other mail in promotions this year as well, not miles but cash reimbursements for health clubs and events, and a free TV watchman. I do not have any more details, but the mail in certificates are part of a Healthy choice calendar (which also has coupons). The calendar was being given away at my supermarket with Healthy Choice purchases, but they have run out of them.

Pudding Guy is the marketer's dream and this promotion has clearly wildly exceeded all expectations set by the company.

Firms can only DREAM about these sorts of events and when they occur - well they get squeezed as tight as you can imagine.

I think Pudding Guy is one helluva clever engineer.

Go Cal Aggies!



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"Living well is the best revenge"

My boyfriend is a professor at a business school and used Pudding Guy as a typical example of "rewarding A but expecting B."

If I were running ConAgra, I would probably not shoot the Promotions Manager for the Healthy Choice line, however I would want to know how the actual ROI did versus the projected.

Building the trialist base through a promotional campaign such as this may strengthen the brand. Certainly the brand awareness will be up a point or two with WSJ, Today, NPR, and the Times of London readers.

My guess is that if HC saw this as a successful promotion, that they will do it again in the future. I got 7000 during their their doubles promotion and wish I did more, but the products I like - the cold cuts, require cutting through the wrapper exposing them to spoilage. I put a lot in the freezer. Anyway, I hope they do it again! As they say, "the proof will be in the pudding".

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DtG

Myleguy -- It seems you found the heart of this issue in the very first post here. You write about the "unforseen loophole." A good lawyer would have "forseen" the loophole and closed it. The guy who bought the pudding was just a little sharper.

One point I haven't seen addressed here is the concept of killing the goose that laid the golden egg. The logic seems to be that we shouldn't take advantage of the golden eggs because then the goose won't lay any more. But if we're not going to take advantage of them, why do we care if it lays any more?

In the Healthy Choice case, the logic seems to be "Now you've done it - next time they'll put in a maximum miles like maybe 25,000 or 50,000. You should have limited yourself to 10,000 so they'd keep the maximum unlimited"...but what good is unlimited if our self-restraint says we can't take advantage of it?

I just couldn't resist this one. Pudding Guy vs. Conagra? Just the thought of one man with a mission affecting a corporate giant like Conagra makes me grin ear to ear. It's like David slaying Goliath! I'd side with Pudding Guy over any nameless, faceless entity. Anyway, with all the publicity given to Healthy Choice I seriously doubt that Conagra is suffering.

Myleguy ,you hit it right on the money.
It is safe to wager that the HC brand manager who came up with idea for the HC Miles has gotten his or her rear end a good chewing by upper managers.
The promotion idea was great,but look to see more restictive promos in the future. I guess you can say the golden egg may be cracked for easy miles promos.Do you remember the airlines double and triple mile bonuses.. system wide ?That promo has been in graveyard.
Taking nothing away from persons who brought low profit margin items,in exchange for miles, companies will be sure to be more cautious in the future.
But, live life for the moment..

Based on the outcome and the PR that Healthy Choice received, if this person worked for me, I'd give them a promotion! But I would tell them to be more careful about the "details" next time.

[This message has been edited by PremEx (edited 02-02-2000).]