MarketingProfs

MediaBuyerPlanner: Coca-Cola is facing unhappy customers due to the management of its consumer loyalty program, My Coke Rewards, which launched in February.
Chat boards and message boards point out problems with point values, disappearing prizes, wish lists and expiration dates, some even referring to the program as “My Coke Rewards Scam,” Promo Magazine reports.
Coke had to adjust point values needed to win prizes early on when members complained that it was impossible to earn enough points to win some top prizes. Another trouble spot, an early rule that points would expire after 90 days of account inactivity, appears to have been removed. Other members complained that highly sought after prizes ran out too quickly.
“It’s another opportunity for us to communicate to the consumer exactly what prizes are available and which ones will quickly be unavailable so they can plan accordingly,” a Coke spokesperson said.
But one My Coke Rewards member said that [an e-mail notice] doesn’t help very much. “To me, it makes me want to go drink Pepsi.”
So far, the program has awarded about 300,000 prizes.
In a related development, a consumer has filed a lawsuit against the Coca-Cola Co. claiming that the My Coke Rewards program might prompt kids to drink so much soda that they could die.