The latest Bellwether Report, 19th January 2012, reveals an 11 year low in confidence of
-44.9%, executives assessment of their own company's prospects had deteriorated for the first time since the beginning of 2009 and the recent trend of increasing marketing budgets is running out of steam, dropping from 3.4% to 0.6%. All pretty gloomy.
More worryingly, for our industry at least, is the fact that 'Below the Line' and Main Media spend were the only marketing sectors to see a reduction in spend losing out to Discounting and Online strategies, particular pay per click or 'search' marketing. To my mind the winners here strike me as either quick fixes or, in the case of discounting, a rocky road to fuelling consumer expectations for lower prices and long-term margin erosion.
Why is sales promotion missing out?
If we ignore for the moment the fact that discounting is a form of sales promotion, why is the more creative end of sales promotion faring less well? Compared with the other disciplines, Sales Promotion stands up well to the competition*:
| Comparing Marketing Disciplines | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Easy to Set up |
Economical | Quick to Launch |
Reach a big Audience |
Visible at Point of Purchase |
Targeted | Measurable |
| Advertising | ✔ | ✔ | |||||
| Direct Marketing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
| Sales Promotion | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| Search Marketing |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Social Media Marketing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
On this assessment sales promotion is second only to search marketing in terms of ticking all the boxes, but let's face facts: search marketing can only drive traffic to your site and not much else; it doesn't add value, develop your brand personality or capture consumer data; it's no real use for grocery and drinks brands which don't sell directly off their website and if competition for pay per click spaces gets too fierce you'll either end up paying over the odds or only seeing traffic for very narrow search terms.
We suspect, the reason that marketers are shirking sales promotion comes down to:
Cost effective sales promotion solutions
Okay if you're still reading you must be slightly tempted and you want to see what's possible for a modest budget before seeking out that reputable supplier? Well here's some for starters...
* We've taken a general view of typical activity in each case and, before any of you start, I'm sure there are exceptions to every rule and you could argue the relative merits of every discipline for each of the criteria. Arguing against our own gradings for sales promotion - it can be relatively easy to set up and quick to launch but we were basing our rating on the fact that most FMCG sales promotions often require sell-in and subsequent buy-in from the retailers that carry the promotion. This is rarely a quick process.
Compiling the reviews on our sister blog, PromoWatch, we read a LOT of terms and conditions. Geeky I know, but they are there for a reason. They lay out the terms of engagement, the rules of the game and SHOULD allow consumers to determine if a promotion lives up to its headline. Often terms and conditions are unwieldy, jargony, inconsistent and unfathomable. Indeed, most people don't bother reading them, until they have a problem by which time the damage has already been done.
When we reviewed sales promotion in Italy last summer the most striking element, apart from the beautiful people used in the packaging, was the consistent nature of the terms and conditions. They followed the same template and you knew exactly what was on offer with total transparency. Sadly the same cannot be said for UK Sales Promotions. Here are a few examples of promotional issues we come across - many of which we have seen in the first two weeks of this year alone:
Ultimately the only people who lose out on the above failings is the consumer. Well, we know that it might be a bit like turkeys voting for Christmas but we're going to stick our head above the parapet and formally make our plea to the sales promotion authorities:
We want a universal template for terms and conditions with mandatory legal approval for ALL promotions
There really is no reason in this internet age why the whole process of terms and conditions shouldn't be process driven, strictly regulated with ALL promotions having to use the same master template, the final version of which MUST be pre-approved by a recognised body be it bodies like CAP, IPM, ASA or private companies like PromoVeritas and Enable before a campaign goes live. After all a checklist of the essential elements of sales promotion techniques is taught in the IPM diploma, so, why not take the logical step of creating a framework for terms and conditions which every promoter should adopt? No arguments, no ambiguity and no exceptions.
Template for Sales Promotion Terms and Conditions
Here's a general framework to be going on with:
1. Summary - particularly long terms and conditions
2. Who is eligible to participate, e.g. age, geographical, excluding employees of promoter and their agents
3. What's on offer - if necessary provide details later
4. How to enter / entry requirements
5. Restrictions on entry - no defaced entries, no bulk or automated entries etc
6. How are: winners determined / rewards attributed / winning entries assessed and by who, e.g. independent judges, computer etc
7. Dates for entry, claiming, redeeming, time to fulfil prizes etc to the consumer
8. What is the likelihood of winning the advertised reward
9. Winner notification / publicity
10. Winner details
11. Data protection policy / notification
12. Exact details of what's on offer
13. State whether a cash alternative is available
14. Promoter's name and address
15. Customer Service details if different to details in item 12.
16. Disclaimers - can't be held responsible for injury, loss, damage or negligence as a result of participating in the promotion etc.
17. No correspondence will be entered into and the promoter's decision is final on all matters
18. State who legally approved the terms and conditions and who was responsible for administering the promotion if different to the promoter.
Conclusion
We're sure that there'll be plenty of opposition to our campaign to legalise and formalise sales promotion Ts & Cs from people who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. But, ultimately, we're all supposed to be looking after the best interests of consumers first and foremost because, like it or not, successful engagement in sales promotion is built on trust. Terms and Conditions are the only mechanism we have for spelling out the parameters by which all parties participate in a promotion, so it is imperative that they are regulated within a framework which itself instils that trust.
Not so very long ago there wasn't an internet. Back in the days when evening telly was good, Britons weren't obese and fuel was less than 50p a litre. Imagine that. What we did to fill the time was far less virtual and very much more real.
20 years or so later and the internet is so fundamental to our existence that it's a wonder we ever survived without it. It's brought amazing convenience, unbelievable information and an equal amount of disinformation, anytime, at the click of a mouse. Of course marketers have embraced the medium as much as anyone and it's hard to find any sales promotion which doesn't have a web element. But with so many sales promotions out there why do we mourn for the sales promotions of yesteryear when people used heat and reveal labels, inserted blue sachets containing fivers into packets of crisps and even a miniature plastic house inside your tin of beans to tell you, in no uncertain terms that you had won, a house? It might be the excitement, buzz and awe-inspiring creativity which seems so lacking in their internet descendents.
Looking at the 88 or so promotions which we featured on PromoWatch last year, 56% of them had exactly the same mechanic: "enter a unique code from promotional packs on the website to qualify". Assuming our blog is representative of the sales promotion industry as a whole, if more than half of all brands thought that running a competition with a unique code entry mechanic was the best way of establishing a point of difference with their competitors, they were sadly mistaken.
Why has the internet stifled creativity?
In the early days, putting up a microsite for an on-pack promotion was relatively pricey and they were primarily used by market leading brands to support the principle activity. But before too long the microsite has evolved to represent the promotion in its entirety encompassing the customer journey from start to finish. The reasons are obvious - money. Websites are now cheaper to create than ever before, while producing innovative promotional devices and customised product packaging has become, for the most part, more expensive or in some cases a logistical headache.
Now, in the same way that nearly all tv programmes seem to be about property or cooking, once a winning formula has been established promotions agencies realise they can re-package a successful concept and sell it in to clients again and again. Taking it to its logical conclusion, a general acquiescence in mediocrity increases the profusion of mediocrity to the point where it becomes the accepted norm. This all leads to one big yawn for the consumer - and the intrepid sales promotion commentator.
Injecting innovation into sales promotion
The Sales Promotion Industry's utilisation of the internet is a bit like most people's use of the processing power of their home computer - barely taxing its capabilities at all. The internet is far more than just an interpreter of unique codes or a means of plotting pretty dots on a map. So how else can we maximise the power of the web within our sales promotion activity?
If we assume that most brands need to prove that a purchase has been made, can we first look beyond the reliance on unique codes?
Small and discreet, QR codes or Snaptags could easily be incorporated into product packaging and, using a simple reader, would automatically take consumers to the promotional website right on their device (think webcam, tablet or smartphone). As they would have to be in possession of the product to access the on-pack graphic it is fair to assume that they've made a legitimate purchase and have qualified for entry. This would make the all important 'simplicity of entering your promotion' integral to the customer journey.
Can't fit a graphic on your pack - develop a barcode reader for your microsite. With such a heavy penetration of smartphones, tablets and webcams and even smart TVs now, most devices will have the necessary lens to view the barcode for your chosen platform. The CD and DVD purchasing website Music Magpie employs this to great effect.
Go a bit retro. Combine the online and offline worlds by cutting out a token / logo / masthead or whatever from the offline packaging and affix it to a downloaded voucher as the ultimate photocopy / scanner proof online coupon. NB only works for proper redbrick high street retailers*.
* Available while shops last
If you just can't get away from using a unique code why not try and wean yourself off the Instant Win habit? Here's a few ideas for using a unique code, some of which you may have seen in the wild already or covered in other posts:
if you can't avoid 'instant win' why not make the act of telling people the win/lose verdict more interesting? In keeping with the theme of your brand / promotion it could be the turning wheel on the front of a safe or animated lottery balls which might match up with your unique reference. This simple animation would not be expensive but it would make the engagement and overall impression of the promotion, feel like it was given some modicum of thought rather than just being churned out on a conveyor belt.
The Good News...
The dominance of Twitbook provides a ready platform for smaller brands to promote themselves with very little capital outlay. We should be celebrating the fact that a lower cost of entry means that smaller brands can contemplate sales promotion at all.
Some brands are doing great promotions which really harness the power of social media, sharing user-generated content and integrating their activity across multiple channels. We featured one such promotion from Visit Britain today. So there are reasons to be optimistic. But, woe-betide the sales promotion industry if we have a similar proportion of 'instant win unique reference number monotony' in 2012. You've been warned!!!
P.S. If this blog existed 50 years ago (and I had been born) no doubt I'd have been writing a provocative article about how television had made promotions less personal or relevant. Blah, blah, blah, moan, moan...
We write this post partly in response to an interesting article we read on PromoMarketing's website and partly to offer our thoughts on using promotions in Social Media.
We've mentioned before our rather scathing attitude towards the phenomenon of brands just trying to accumulate as many likes and follows as possible, which we regard as confusing faux popularity with brand engagement. However, there have been one or two promotional campaigns utilising Social Media, e.g. Ocean Spray's Bounce Your Berry, which have been exclusively Facebook-based and have proved extremely effective.
The main point of the Promotional Marketing article was the assertion that creative promotions stimulate engagement, which we heartily agree with. In social media terms they are fast to implement, relatively cost-effective and great for motivating individuals to do your marketing for you. They also cite 3 consumer types which you should consider: the self-explanatory 'spectators', 'joiners' and 'creators'.
Whilst they alude to it with the 'creators' category, we actually think that this sub-division is the most important target group and where the majority of effort should be focused. Malcolm Gladwell in his famous book, 'The Tipping Point', refers to the 'law of the few'. The basic theory is that 20% of the people do 80% of the work in making an idea go viral. They are categorised as Connectors, Mavens and Salespeople - people that draw people together, people that acquire deep knowledge on every subject and people that are naturally able to sell. Seth Godin takes the concept further in his book 'Unleashing the Ideavirus' which talks about harnessing the power of 'promiscuous sneezers' and 'powerful sneezers'.
Promiscuous sneezers people who can be bought by a variety of inducements and are not held in high esteem as opinion formers - but if they're promiscuous enough they can be a very useful ally. They'd even share their grandmother if it got them entry into a prize draw.
Powerful sneezers are extremely influential and held in high esteem and (in theory) can't be bought. If it was known that they were being bought they would lose their credibility and hence influence. (B-list celebs do it all the time).
Now if you embark on a Social Media campaign, we would confidently suggest that the majority of people that are proactively using these services are sneezers of one sort or another. Indeed the casually promiscuous sneezers fall into the category that we highlighted at the beginning of this article, namely people who are following and liking everything in their path if there is a prize draw or discount in it for their trouble.
So your social media campaign MUST bear both categories of sneezer in mind and treat them accordingly.
Here are some techniques which will help you harness the power of Social media sneezers:
1) Make it relevant
Think of your brand personality, your product, what people perceive you as. Whatever form your campaign takes, it must reflect your personality and enhance that perception with your target audience.
2) Encourage viral seeding
The cornerstone of spreading a virus is to make it easy, appealing and rewarding to do so. Your campaign treat, freebie or offer must be easily (and ideally engagingly) shareable. Think: apps that make an amusing video or image using your uploaded photo or a game that enhances your brand personality (see Doritos for examples). Reward the promiscuous with extra entries for the more people they refer, a bigger discount, an extra free gift. Always make it very easy to share your efforts. The promiscuous types are going to shout about any little extras they earn. They yearn for this validation / attention.
3) Get the Edge - don't let up after starting your Facebook campaign
It's tempting to think that creating a FB promo and setting up the prizes, or whatever, is the end of the story. To mis-quote the Jim'll Fix it Song - your effort was only the start of it. Promotional Marketing makes passing reference to Facebook's EdgeRank. EdgeRank determines what appears on your news feed when you sign in to Facebook. So, it's a very important part of getting your campaign message across and motivating sneezers.
An Edge, as far as Facebook is concerned, is every interaction you make whilst on Facebook - every like, every photo uploaded, every status update creates an edge. EdgeRank uses an algorithm to determine the order of news items on your Facebook feed based on Affinity (how friendly you are with the entity you interacted with), Edge Weight (some events like a photo, have more of an edge than just 'liking' something*) and Recency (or time decay - the older the less relevant without being ageist of course). We'll focus on EdgeRank in more detail below.
4) Don't lose momentum
It's easy to get complacent and stop when you've reached a target number of Likes etc. but your Social Media equity can soon plunge like a black day on the stock market. You wouldn't just stop talking to real friends just because you've got enough so why do it to your virtual friends?
Predictably there are plenty of services out there that will help you get your brand up the EdgeRank and make your marketing efforts work harder for you. EdgeRankChecker was the top result in Google last time we checked!
But, if you prefer a more hands-on approach, here are some Top Tips to make your Social Media activity create a buzz and give you the edge on EdgeRank.
Conclusion
Like most aspects of marketing, forewarned is forearmed. It's all very well doing a big, expensive, glitzy promotion, but it won't fulfil its potential if you don't pay attention to the details, the build up and keeping the dialogue ongoing, fresh and interesting. Every penny counts when you're putting together a social media campaign so you have to make sure every effort is as effective as possible. Go and start spreading those Sneezes!
* See! We told you gettings Likes on Facebook isn't all it's cracked up to be!
Here is a snap shot of the top 10 promotions featured on PromoWatch in November 2011 based on unique page views.
| No. | Promotion | % of Views | Avg. Time on Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. (4) |
Wrigleys Extra - Tooth Fairy | 13.71% | 1m 58s |
| 2. (-) |
New Covent Garden Soup - Win a Farm | 8.36% | 2m 5s |
| 3. (6) |
Becks - Free Music Downloads |
7.49% | 3m 26s |
| 4. (2) |
Crisp 'n Dry - Win cash for Christmas | 7.16% | 2m 10s |
| 5. (3) |
Kit-Kat - Win your perfect break |
6.86% | 1m 42s |
| 6. (1) |
Ocean Spray - Bounce your berry |
5.62% | 3m 2s |
| 7. (-) |
McDonald's - Best Ever Free Coca-Cola glass | 5.54% | 1m 43s |
| 8. (7) |
Discovery Food - Win family fun at home |
2.06% | 2m 43s |
| 9. (-) |
Laughing Cow - Win a 5-Star Farm Break | 1.31% | 1m 39s |
| 10. (17) |
Ski - Family Holiday Offer | 1.22% | 1m 25s |
Comment
Ocean Spray's Bounce you Berry has been toppled from the no. 1 spot by Wrigleys Extra Tooth Fairy, although it's still hanging on to the top 10. Looking over the list freebies and prize draws dominate with a surprising trend towards Farm related prizes emerging - if you can call two promotions a trend or an emergence for that matter.
Creating a point of difference, attracting like-minded customers and creating a cultural buzz around your brand are compelling reasons for developing a bit of personality. Well-defined character traits, style, attitude etc should underpin and define everything you do whether it's your communications, design, company ethics, promotional offering/mechanic and the brands, causes or celebrities you choose to associate with.
So, where do you get your personality from?
Nature: Where does anyone get their personality from? Part of it is driven by the very nature of your product or the reason behind a product's inception in the first place. Clearly if you have an established brand there will be certain characteristics inherent in your name already. If you like those characteristics then that is a ready platform to build on. If not, or the character has fallen behind the times it is still possible to re-brand or relaunch. (e.g. McDonald's dropping Ronald McDonald for the hipper "I'm Loving It" vibe)
Nurture: Part of the personality is driven by traits that would appeal to your target audience. For banking / Insurance you want security, dependability and trust but for a children's snack brand anarchy, irreverence and boldness will push the right buttons.
How can the personality manifest?
Here are a few of our favourite brand personalities...
Innocent's humour, friendliness and enthusiasm is plain for everyone to see. Their stunningly simple promotion The Big Knit will have raised a total of over £1 million for Age by the end of this year's campaign. It engages consumers, creates stand-out on shelf and raises money for a great cause, all with personality and humour. And that just says it all about this amazing personality.
Kulula the South African no-frills airline could be seen as mildly reckless or cavalier injecting humour into passenger safety announcements, but it seems to work. Whether it's the amusing livery on their fleet of aircraft or the in-flight announcements, Kulula deliver bags of laughs as well as hopefully delivering your bags at your destination. Here are some real life examples of Kulula's announcements:
The Peperami Animal has been around since 1993 and the 'It's a bit of an animal' slogan has formed the backbone of their marketing ever since. Their 'Win a Fanimal' campaign was an inspired piece of subversive marketing to capitalise on the World Cup without being a sponsor. I'll let the Animal explain their ethos: "Throw me, hit me, squeeze me – I can take it, I’m a bit of an animal – and I’ll unleash the rants. Those lentil eating, veggie foreign teams won’t know what hit ‘em."
So, if you're considering a change of personality or giving birth to a new brand entity, whatever you do - be bold. Stick with what you believe in and, like the Peperami Animal, your brand personality will soon take on a life of it's own. Good Luck!
I have to admit that when the concept of group-buying to achieve unbelievable discounts came to the UK, that I initially felt concern for our own USP - that of providing discount partners for sales promotion and loyalty. But, on closer scrutiny, I realised that the short term and ultra-localised nature of most of the offers would not represent any real threat to our business.
But you could perhaps forgive me for indulging in a certain amount of schadenfreude when the wider world, including the BBC no less, wake up to the fact that the business model employed by the likes of Groupon, KGB Deals etc is grossly unfair on the merchants providing the discounts.
Now it would be foolish to criticise the concept as a whole. I myself enjoyed an unbelievably cheap two course meal for four a few weeks ago in a venue (and a part of town for that matter) that I would have never ventured into unwittingly. And the chances are, I probably never will again. Not by any failing on the part of the restaurant but purely because there is always another deal to try. And therein lies the problem. If merchants are providing a higher than 50% discount this is an almighty loss-leader if they don't receive any (full-paying) repeat business or are unable to up-sell them on any additional services. In this scenario the promised deluge of new customers can soon turn from a dream into a costly nightmare.
This approach is completely against our principles at Mosaic effectively leaching the lifeblood of your own business. For Mosaic the welfare and success of our partner's business is paramount and fundamental to our mutual survival. We strive to protect the brand interest and objectives of our partners every bit as much as our clients. Mosaic is in it for the long haul in all our relationships. Without a willing, enthusiastic and trusting database of partners we wouldn't survive.
Our advice to anyone embarking on a Daily Deals campaign is be careful. As experts in third party marketing, here is our advice on how to protect your business:
Here is a snap shot of the top 10 promotions featured on PromoWatch in October 2011 based on unique page views.
| No. | Promotion | % of Views | Avg. Time on Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. (1) |
Ocean Spray - Bounce your berry | 10.87% | 3m 14s |
| 2. (-) |
Crisp 'n Dry - Win cash for Christmas |
8.09% | 2m 2s |
| 3. (2) |
Kit-Kat - Win your perfect break |
7.21% | 1m 34s |
| 4. (-) |
Wrigleys Extra - Tooth Fairy |
7.73% | 1m 55s |
| 5. (6) |
Actimel - Win 500 back packs |
3.08% | 1m 22s |
| 6. (4) |
Becks - Free Music Downloads |
4.32% | 4m 19s |
| 7. (7) |
Discovery Food - Win family fun at home | 3.22% | 2m 3s |
| 8. (8) |
Sainsbury's - Summer Savings |
2.71% | 3m 6s |
| 9. (-) |
Doritos/Pepsi Max - Vegas or Iceland |
2.01% | 1m 31s |
| 10. (3) |
Mars - Bag a million movies |
1.83% | 3m 9s |
Comment
Bounce you Berry continues to bear fruit for Ocean Spray allbeit with half of the unique views from the previous month. We can't really fathom what's causing this cranberry clamour save for the fact that it is a Facebook based promotion, but you still have to enter a code from packs to win. Whatever it is, there's something viral going on which may counter what we thought from a social networking loyalty programme point of view. It all begs the question, when will Bounce Your Berry run out of juice?
Otherwise we have a mix of 3 new entries, 2 promotions which are repeating a previous concept, 2 non-movers of 5 which haven't moved much. Sainsbury's Summer Savings actually finished at the end of September. Some people obviously don't want summer to end...
Our interest in the evolution of loyalty schemes was piqued by a recent article on Marketing Week online heralding the new guard of consumer driven programmes.
To quickly condense that article into a few soundbites for the FB status generation:
Another new innovation in loyalty schemes landed on my very own doormat this week, myWaitrose. Hence this article.
On the face of it, the concept is very refreshing.
So, quite an ambitious package and, of course, we have our own opinion but Waitrose (bravely) have a Tell us What you Think forum where real life punters share their thoughts. Here's a summary of the main complaints:
Conclusions
So are all these innovations going to change the face of loyalty? Yes, up to a point. On the whole myWaitrose appears to have been well received apart from the odd compliance or technical issue which often happen in the early days. They might be late to the supermarket loyalty party but with their enigmatically different approach they could be partying late into the night while other schemes have long gone to bed.
Overall data mining is a logical advancement in making the most of your customer relationship. The trick here is clearly how well the data is interpreted and actioned. The potential picture could have so many permutations that making the offers relevant on a macro level would be impossible or mega expensive. Clearly the Waitrose route of offering universally appealing Christmas wrapping paper, sweets and petrol can't go far wrong.
Finally, we are astounded that companies confuse Facebook likes with any real sense of loyalty. It becomes a rather meaningless playground popularity contest. If you're 'bribing' them with an offer in the first place, then what sort of people are you being liked by? Bargain hunters or loyal fans? How many ever come back and interact once they've liked you for a freebie?
Hello?... Marketeers?
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