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February, 2011

Brand managers need to make careful decisions when planning promotional campaigns. On-pack promotions should be carefully planned to directly appeal to the target audience to reap the benefits of increased revenue and most importantly brand loyalty. Here’s a check list of things that need to be considered:

What is the value proposition of your product (s)? 
There is often an abundance of choice for consumers these days so differentiating from the competition is an important factor.

How does this suit your target audience?
Differentiating from the competition is one thing but telling the right audience is another. A promotional campaign needs to be well thought out and well targeted.

Ask yourself why you want to run a promotional campaign
Firstly, make sure everyone on the team understands the need for running a campaign, that they understand the reasoning behind it and the desired results. Agree what you want to achieve from the activity, agree timings and monitor the progress throughout the promotion.

What’s the purpose of the campaign?
Firstly, you need to agree on a campaign that represents an investment and not just an additional cost. The idea of a promotion is to increase brand awareness, whether this is to appeal to existing loyal customers or to reach a new generation.

Cross promote?
Using on-pack devices such as multi-page labels allows for additional pages of information to be included. Why not include details of other products in your range?

Does your packaging design match the promotion?
The appearance of your package counts enormously so make sure you get the design right. Your label supplier can help you get the right balance between matching your livery and creating a standout. Eye-catching designs can mean the difference between success and failure of a promotional campaign. 

According to the Point-of-Purchase Advertising Institute, 60% of in-store supermarket purchases are unplanned (see table below). That’s almost two thirds of your audience that are open to persuasion. So here’s a great chance to make your packaging work for you!

What’s in it for the consumer?
As with all brands, you can normally rely on a core of dedicated purchasers who will buy your products regardless but a promotion is the fishing rod you need to help reel in new devotees. Slashing your prices will certainly get consumers hooked and create a short term spike in sales but will lead to profit erosion and is unlikely to build any strong relationships with your customers. A well positioned promotion is a good way of showing the values of your company and the quality of your products.

Seek the advice of professionals
Be careful to state what the offer entails and what the consumer has to do to claim it. If you are offering a prize or a cash sum, you may want to seek the assistance of a professional company with experience in handling such promotions. Many companies will be able to offer the promotional label as well as the mechanism to record winners and prize claims.

Fulfil your promises
Your brand’s reputation is important to you so you need to make sure the campaign creates the right sort of exposure. A portion of the promotional information or at least the url. of a web address that includes terms and conditions should be included.

How long will the promotion run?
Make sure you state a start and end date to your promotion. This will ensure consumers are aware that they need to make a claim for any prizes, redemption coupons within a certain frame time. It will also allow you to close off the promotion once and for all to measure the success of the campaign.

Handle data in the correct manner
If you have included data capture of any sort on your promotional material, make sure you put it to good use. You’ll be missing a trick if you don’t. i.e. if a coupon asks for contact details such as email addresses, ensure a consent tick box is included so that the consumer agrees you can contact them. You may wish to follow up with a regular newsletter, further discounts, offers or incentives etc. This will allow to further build your relationship with the end-user.

How can the results of the promotion be measured?
Putting a case forward to run a promotion can be hard enough these days so the input from previous campaigns can go a long way to justify future expenditure. Offering a redemption coupon, text to win codes or another form of response mechanism is a perfect way of providing feedback.