RESTAURANT REVIEW - There is a new cookie shop in town where someone had the brilliant idea of sending everyone in Madera a coupon for a free cookie. This is the best way to market a new item to a public who might be skeptical of paying $4.50 for a single cookie or over $40 for a dozen. What is better than the company’s confidence saying, ‘the first hit is free’?
What could go wrong with such an idea? Maybe the marketing team at Crumbl Cookies did not anticipate a minimum wage employee deciding the free cookie needs to be limited to one or two selections from the company’s menu of cookies, even though every flavor is listed at the same $4.50 price point. The coupon does not indicate selection limitations other than offering only one free cookie.
This was my first experience with the Crumbl Cookie Company and their new Madera location on West Cleveland Avenue. As we left with our chocolate with chocolate chip cookie, not even the cookie I ordered, I told my wife the coupon mailing was great marketing that ultimately failed because someone at the store level did not understand the marketing campaign’s purpose. Now I will forever associate their overpriced cookies with the word “No!” which will make my dietician happy.
When I presented the coupon, I was told my only choices were the traditional Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie or a chocolate cookie with extra chocolate chips. I picked the Tollhouse. But as it turned out, they were out of Tollhouse and I ended up with the other cookie, which was too chocolatey for a guy who does not like chocolate. See, this is another reason the marketing plan failed with me. Not everyone is going to want a chocolate cookie. But these were the limitations placed on the offer, at least the store level.
The cookie was warm and soft and had more of a cake-like texture than a traditional cookie. This is not a cookie that will ever be a must-have for me, but I could have seen this being a place to pick up special treats now and then for the ladies in my house. After the coupon’s limitation issues, I wonder if I will ever spend a dime in that place. I can think of several other places to pick up treats for my wife and girls in Madera, and not this place that invited me in with the promise of a free cookie, then told me “no” when they should have been more concerned with making an excellent first impression.
The Crumbl Cookie Company could learn from their next-door neighbor, the West Coast Sourdough Company. My wife and I ate there last week, and their employees made us feel welcomed and appreciated. We will be back often, and they did not need to bribe us with free food; just gave us good food and great service which is all we really ever want.
