I recently read a blog post about the Domino’s Pizza mishap that resulted in 11,000 free pizzas given away to customers over a twelve-hour period. What interests me most about this promotion gone wrong isn’t the fact that a computer error resulted in pizzas inadvertently being given away for free, but that someone actually figured out the error based on sheer ingenuity (or boredom), which then spread so wide, so fast, that Domino’s was forced to take an 11,000 pizza hit.

Let’s backtrack a bit. This whole mistake came to light when someone – most likely bored, hungry and low on funds – had the idea to type “bailout” into the coupon code box when ordering a medium pizza on Dominos.com. The “bailout” code rewarded the customer with a free medium pizza. The catch – Domino’s never advertised nor publicly released a “bailout” coupon code, though they had set the promotion up in their system but abandoned it a couple of months ago. Though Domino’s had been using a bailout theme in their advertising, the code was discovered by complete mistake. No one knows how it happened, though Domino’s has come up with a theory: a college student in Cincinnati discovered the code and told a friend in Salt Lake City, or the other way around. They drew this conclusion based on the fact that restaurants near college campuses in those cities had the most orders with the “bailout” free pizza code. Regardless of how it started, word spread to nearly 11,000 people who got their free orders in before Domino’s realized their mistake and fixed it.

The Big Fat Marketing Blog makes an excellent point about the inadvertent promotion – thousands of people were drawn to Dominos.com that may have never thought to use the site to order Domino’s online before. They were drawn there from word-of-mouth spread from friend to friend and across the Internet at lightning speed. Had this promotion been planned, Domino’s could have acquired a great deal of valuable customer data as well as stats on how wide and how fast such a promotion could spread. They could test different variables – does releasing the code in a certain part of the country, or certain time of day result in more orders or a faster spread? Just what kinds of people are redeeming the code – college students, families, single people? There is a deep well of information and data that could be tapped with this type of promotion executed in a well-thought out manner.

The moral of this story? A great offer – intended or not – will attract new customers and expose them to your products and services, especially with the power of word-of-mouth and the Internet behind it. The other moral of this story? Um, people who are bored and hungry spend time on pizza chain websites trying to come up with coupon codes that will give them free pizza? I actually don’t know if there is much to learn from that point…

With the economy in the bleak state it is currently in, people have been trying to figure any way they can to stretch their dollars to meet their needs. One side-effect of this newfound frugality is the increased use of coupons – particularly online coupons. Coupon use has surged 10% in the past four months, according to a recently published Wall Street Journal article. Online coupons have helped fuel the rise in coupon usage. Coupons.com, for example, said its users printed out 140% more coupons in 2008 as opposed to the year before. Coupon sites were the fastest-growing category at the end of 2008, according to comScore data. These coupon-aggregating sites are a fast and easy way to find the coupons and discounts that you are looking for, thus making the whole coupon process more efficient than ever. However, coupons aren’t the only way that people are looking to stretch a buck.

Loyalty cards and reward programs have helped us make it through these tight times as well. The implementation of more widespread loyalty cards and reward programs by major retailers such as Borders and Kroger (Ralphs for all you SoCal’ers) has resulted in great discounts and savings for their customers. Customers can receive the same savings satisfaction that comes along with coupons, without having to do any of the work that goes along with them. Coupons have always been a popular way to save a few bucks when shopping at a high-end retailer, but this current economic downturn has caused more people than ever to seek out coupons and discounts for basic necessities such as groceries, personal care products and gas. Nowadays, there all kinds of great ways to get more bang for your buck, and coupons have actually become much easier to use through the popularity of coupon aggregating websites such as RetailMeNot.com and CouponCabin.com.

There has always been a bit of a stigma attached to using coupons. People were afraid that they would come off as “cheap” for trying to save a few cents, or feel like the work that goes into clipping coupons out of the Sunday paper wasn’t worth saving $2.83 on your grocery store bill. New technologies, including online coupons, have made it much easier to apply coupons and discounts to things that we purchase. Obviously online shopping has opened up a whole new world where people can purchase anything they like in a discreet manner. Similarly, we can use all the online coupons we want when shopping online, far from the judging eyes of society. Loyalty cards and reward programs help to accrue credit and discounts as well. These work out for all parties involved – the companies keep current customers as well as earn new ones, and the customers receive great coupons and discounts! Though coupons and loyalty programs are far more helpful when you have less money to spend, taking advantage of them now and getting used to utilizing them as part of your shopping habits can help you save money in the long run.

In a recent staff meeting our company President, Terry Dry, posed an interesting question – would you wait in line for over an hour for $6.00 in cash? I’m sure there are those of us who would say “yes,” but I will take a guess that the majority of people would not.

And yet 2 million people flocked to Denny’s to get a free Grand Slam breakfast this Tuesday after the Super Bowl – a value of $5.99 on any other day.

It got me thinking – is it all psychological? Consumers (especially in our current economy) get some level of satisfaction in getting what they perceive is a great deal – no matter the value of their time, or cost in gas money to get there. Everywhere you look some brand or another is giving away free products (Krispy Kreme, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A) as part of one promotional offer or another, and customers are willing to wait for hours if necessary to get the free coffee or donut.

Maybe we think the brands owe us something, or maybe we think we are secretly “sticking it to ‘em” – but is it really worth it? What’s really apparent is how much brands mark up their actual product – keep in mind it only cost Denny’s $1 per breakfast (2 pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 sausage links and 2 pieces of bacon for $1?).

Second best to free is of course the discount. I like to think of myself as a promotional code connoisseur. I do no online shopping before visiting RetailMeNot.com – a coupon deal resource/community. But yet I’m so caught up in getting the discount that I don’t spend my time actually shopping around for the better deal in the first place. A little jolt of excitement comes over me when I see that shopping cart price adjust itself to minus $5, but if I did a bit more research I’m fairly certain I could find that same product $5 cheaper somewhere else.

I think that I, along with many other shoppers, feel truly accomplished when we’ve eaten that free breakfast or gotten that deal on a pair of Joe’s Jeans – it’s the thrill of the chase. Sure you spent the rest of the day with heart burn, but at least you didn’t pay for it.

It will be interesting to see how far brands take it this year – maybe I’ll finally get that free house I’ve always wanted.