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Sales Promotions that Work

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Wed, 2/20/2013

A common thought among many marketing people is that hefty prizes are needed to make a promotion work. The fact of the matter is that most consumers do not participate in promotions.

They are primarily interested in obtaining the product or service offered by the business. The promotional value they get is only icing on the cake.

To make a sales promotion interesting, full integration of various aspects relating to the product or service assists in brand identity and eventual purchase, whether in the short or long term. Integration can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. What I’m referring to are; ties to another retailer, a non-traditional brand, a cause, having an event to support the promotion and more. The more fully integrated you go, the higher likelihood you will have to cross paths with the targeted consumer.

I always like to refer back to the most interesting promotion in my career to date. A car dealer decided to fight back against a professional sports team who was, at the time, an embarrassment in the community. So they developed a promotion to end all promotions. It included;
1) A look-alike contest for both the owner and coach of the team
2) A car give-away at the end of the day
3) Several smaller prizes to be given away
4) Entertainment from the local high school marching band and cheerleaders
5) Entertainment from two country bands
6) Interactive games to keep the people on the lot
7) Remote broadcasts on two radio stations
8) Hot dogs and sodas throughout the promotion

The result; 34 cars sold that day, and several more in the following week to those who first came to the dealership in the day of the promotion. Consumers didn’t just come out the car lot because of all the hoopla. They knew this was a car dealership who sells vehicles. They already had an interest and this sales promotion just added icing on the cake to their experience. The exponential exposure came to the dealership in the form of the disc jockeys talking about the promotion for weeks following the event, articles in the newspaper doing the same thing, participants sharing stories about how they got involved, etc.

At the end of the day you have to ask yourself, do you really want to take the time to set up a promotion like the one I’m referring to? The manpower and effort behind it was enormous, yet the ROI was even more.

What are your challenges when it comes to developing sales promotions that work? I look forward to hearing your comments. Until next time…