The Chinese based kitchen appliance manufacturer Vatti and official partner of the French Football federation (FFF) is paying out on its Russia 2018 promotion in France that promised customers who purchased specific ‘championship products’ a full refund if Didier Deschamps’ side won the World Cup.
Following on from Les Blues tournament triumph, the France national team sponsor has vowed to refund customers £8.9m.
Customers have until 24 July to claim their refund.
Chinese kitchen-appliance maker refunds the money as France wins the #WorldCupRussia2018. Vatti promised a full refund for everyone who bought a specific product during the World Cup if France win. Now, it’s starting to give the money back. @thepandaily https://t.co/4APwLuBpHz
— Nanjing Marketing Group (NMG) (@NanjingMG) July 19, 2018
In response to #France's victory in the 2018 #WorldCupFinal, Vatti, a Chinese kitchen utensil company released a refund instruction to meet its commitment of giving a full refund to its customers who bought the special France-themed package. pic.twitter.com/cqamlqHqtv
— China News 中国新闻网 (@Echinanews) July 16, 2018
The brand launched its campaign in May led by a promotional promise on a World Cup specific product range.
The full product set, which costs £566 ($735), includes a gas cooker, an extractor hoods and a water heater, was on promotion between 1 June and 3 July.
Comment:
This sure seems like it has turned out to be a pricy promotion for Vatti, although a company spokesperson said it will have little impact on the bottom line with sales rocketing by 20% in that promotion period compared with the previous month.
He pointed out that the brand’s World Cup marketing activation had been a success as both on- and off-line sales have been boosted through the tournament and that the French team partnership has also significantly boosted brand awareness.
Indeed, according to Vatti, offline sales volume for designated products amounted to £5.5m ($7.3m) during the promotional period and accounting for around 7% of the company’s total offline sales volume.
While online sales volume for designated products amounted to £3.3m ($4.3m) during the promotional period, accounting for about 9.67% of total online sales.
Hard to tell whether this World Cup campaign is a success or a failure.
Perhaps it’s only the Vatti finance team who really know the truth.
Yet the payout has certainly generated plenty of PR, so if you believe in the old adage ‘all publicity is good publicity’….
Links:
Vatti
https://twitter.com/vattichina1
French Football Federation / Fédération française de football (FFF
https://twitter.com/equipedefrance
https://www.facebook.com/equipedefrance?fref=ts
https://www.instagram.com/equipedefrance/
https://www.youtube.com/user/LesBleusTV
