Leonie Walker, General Manager at Mando, explains how promotions can be great for learning about your audience and are a tool for your long-term marketing strategies and value propositions.   

Retail distribution is a powerful tool to sell any product whether it is through bricks and mortar or via ever-growing ecommerce sites such as Amazon. Retailers churn out sales and accessibility to customers worldwide but naturally take a margin for doing so. Another major disadvantage is getting to know who your buyers actually are; this integral information typically stops with the retailers.  With personalisation and data the cornerstone to any successful brand strategy, it is imperative we learn as much as can about who is truly buying our products.

We don’t know our buyers in retailers

Whilst there is an abundance of excellent and insightful means to find out more about your potential audience, there is no real means to ascertain who the buyer actually is.  Promotions enable you to learn about your customer on a first name basis in an entirely GDPR compliant fashion.

Capture audiences and take names.

Promotions capture attention, stand out in a crowded environment and boost sales, but what’s often overlooked is their ability to harvest valuable buyer data.

What kind of data can you learn?

Promotions open a gateway to communicate and start a conversation with your buyer. We have seen an increasing number of challenger brands who have been selling great volume of products but are still left in the dark when it comes to knowing their buyer.

• Names
• Email/home address
• Opinions of your product

The possibilities are endless the power lies in your route to entry and the attractiveness of your reward.  Ultimately, it’s what do you want your customer to tell you before completing the specifics and what are you willing to give them for it.

What are the perfect mechanics for learning more?

No size fits all with promotions with varying budgets, brand personalities and consumer wants your mechanic should always be created with that in mind. However, overall every mechanic can act as a means to help you learn more.

From cashbacks and try me frees to general prize giveaways it paves the way for consumer temptation and inclination to tell you more.

Aren’t promotions solely short-term strategies?

Stop thinking promotions are solely short-term strategies. Although they spike sales over the promotional period but they are also immensely helpful to the bigger picture. Through learning more about your audience, you create brand trust and identity all whilst opening up a whole portal of possibility. You create brand to buyer conversations, which facilitate real time thinking.

Your strategy should obsess over your customers and driving value. How can you further benefit your customers, if you haven’t made an effort to know them? Promotions are a gateway to a whole tundra of information and should never be viewed as tactic to deploy in isolation.

Through promotions, it enables you to overcome the barriers of retail distribution, learn more, and lay a foundation for you to propel future marketing strategies.

Mando are continuously adding to their data bank and learning about what customers really want. Their methodology is simple; they start with understanding your customer and then work back to your brand, ensuring they create the right solution for your audience.

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New Valentine’s Day research (across 1,000 UK shoppers) from leading retail and shopper marketing agency, Savvy, has revealed that 38 percent of UK shoppers are planning to get involved in Valentine’s Day this year and predicts spending for this occasion to reach £853m.

“Despite Brexit uncertainty and volatile consumer confidence, retailers look set for a solid start to the 2019 event calendar, with Valentine’s Day retail sales set to rise,” said Alastair Lockhart, Insight Director at Savvy. “In recent years we have seen how shoppers have focused their expenditure on events as they seek to make the most of time together with friends and family, but at the same time, retailers have invested more heavily in events, extending product ranges and improve the in-store experiences.”

Key findings:

Who plans to get involved?

• 38 percent of all UK shoppers plan to get involved in Valentine’s Day celebrations this year.
• 35 percent of men compared with 40 percent of women will be marking the occasion.
• 25-34 year olds will celebrate the event the most with 52 percent getting involved. The age group least likely to get involved this year are those aged 65-74 year olds (19 percent).

Of those planning to get involved in the event, how are shoppers feeling about the occasion?

• 65 percent of shoppers are planning on celebrating on the day itself rather than on the at the weekend.
• 72 percent feel that it is a special day and 60 percent are looking forward to it.
• 57 percent say that they don’t mind spending more to make the day special.
• 55 percent plan ahead for which items to purchase, whilst 47 percent will be shopping for gifts at the last minute.

How has the market for Valentine’s Day changed?

• Savvy’s analysis estimates the value of Valentine’s Day to the retail sector will reach £853m – up 7.8 percent on 2018 figures.
• 52 percent of those planning to celebrate Valentine’s Day will be going online to buy presents this year.
• 41 percent are expecting to spend more on Valentine’s Day than in 2018.
• Shoppers are planning on spend £152m on food this year and jewellery retailers will benefit as shoppers intend to spend a total of £113m on the category.

What are UK shoppers looking to buy and what’s on their own wish list to receive?

• For the first time since Savvy have been tracking Valentine’s spending, an experience rather than a physical gift has topped the wish list. 40 percent of shoppers would like to be taken out to a restaurant for a meal this year.
• The gift women would most like to receive is flowers (51 percent), followed by chocolates (43 percent) and then a meal out (41 percent).
• Men are most hoping to go out for a meal (36 percent) or have a home cooked meal (29 percent). A card from a shop also featured high up on their list – 25 percent.
• 32 percent of shoppers would like to receive jewellery this year but only 15 percent expect they will get this.
• A romantic getaway is on the wish list for 29 percent of shoppers, yet only 14 percent are expect to give this type of gift.

Where are shoppers looking for inspiration for things to do and buy for Valentine’s Day?

• Topping the list is the supermarkets – with 52 percent of shoppers pinning their hopes on them for ideas.
• Google takes second place for inspiring shoppers (37 percent) and recommendations from friends, family and word of mouth comes in third with 28 percent.
• Facebook was cited by 19 percent of shoppers and retailers online websites were mentioned by 15 percent.

Where will shoppers head to for their goods?

• In the lead, is Asda with 41 percent of shoppers planning to visit the supermarket. Tesco and Sainsbury’s both tie for second place with 39 percent and Morrisons trails into third place with 37 percent.

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Whether it’s the start of a new calendar or financial year, agency Clive advises all-company conferences and sales team kick-off events are vital internal communications tools to help ensure your year gets off to the best possible start.

The post Creating Engaging Kick-Off Events & Sales Conferences: Inspire & Motivate Your Team for the Year Ahead appeared first on IPM Bitesize.

Many retailers have started their Black Friday sales in advance of the event on the 23^rd November and Savvy’s latest research suggests this year the sale will be bigger than ever. Insight Director, Alastair Lockhart, explores what the findings suggest about consumer behaviour this year and what this means for retailers.

Despite 84% of shoppers believing there is too much hype surrounding Black Friday, this year 53% of UK shoppers plan to buy something during the event, up from 43% who made a purchase in 2017. Around a third of shoppers expect they’ll spend more this year than they did last year.

The findings highlight how younger shoppers are driving growing interest in Black Friday, with 71% of 18-24 year olds planning to buy something.

Most shoppers expect to shop Black Friday online (84% of those getting involved), however 42% plan to buy something in-store – with older shoppers most likely to get out to stores.

In large part due to heavy discounting from retailers like Amazon and Currys PC World, electricals is expected to be the largest Black Friday category. 54% of Black Friday shoppers plan to buy electricals, with clothing and footwear the second largest category (41% planning to buy).

Although some retailers actively avoid participating in the Black Friday sale, Savvy’s research shows the event is a concrete fixture in the retail event calendar. 62% of shoppers believe all retailers should have a Black Friday sale, and almost one-third see the event as the most important sale of the year.

From the retailer’s point of view we continue to see a professionalisation of the event. Retailers are planning the event far in advance, buying stock specifically for Black Friday, and a growing number have extended the sale beyond a week. With consumer confidence fragile, Black Friday can provide an opportunity for retailers to kick-start Christmas spending – the challenge will be maintaining their profit margin during the crucial Golden Quarter of trading.

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Get a promotional marketing campaign right, says Mel Sheldon, Commercial Director at MRM, and it has the potential to take your brand to the next level; driving awareness, reaching new audiences, generating sales, creating appeal and building loyalty across your customer base.

There are lots of moving parts to a campaign, and to deliver on time and on budget whilst hitting your objective takes real skill. The risks involved when things don’t go to plan reach further than just missed sales or lower revenue figures; think dissatisfied customers and the potential damage this may cause to the brand.

The Q2 2018 IPA Bellwether Report shows that in a market of slow increase in overall marketing spend, promotional marketing is showing a 4 point upward revision in spend; meaning that it’s more important than ever for brand owners and Shopper marketing teams to give due consideration to their promotional marketing strategy above & beyond price cuts.

Here we’ve distilled the key considerations to help you plan and perfectly execute your next promotional marketing campaign.

What are we here for?

Starting at the top – ask yourself what are we trying to achieve and what does success look like?

If you don’t understand this from the get-go, it’s likely to be only heading one way.

On a macro level there can be a range of different objectives; are we looking to drive trial, encourage repeat purchase, gather consumer data or reward customer loyalty.

However, promotions needn’t just be about volume generation. Whilst this is a common goal the positive impact on brand equity can sometimes be overlooked. Understand all of the goals or the real challenge that we’re trying to solve, and then what are the potential limitations that may hinder success.

Retail sectors can be used cleverly to work for you in amplifying your promotional campaign. Rather than ticking the box for every retailer where you have listings, give consideration to whether you want to run the campaign in grocery multiples, or target independent retailers – but be aware that each of these has its own intricacies of operation and limitations in terms of what promotional support can be planned.

Once you’ve got a clear perspective on objectives, then comes a mission critical step; briefing your partner.

Getting the briefing right

The success of any campaign hinges on getting the brief right; being clear on what you want to achieve, how it will be measured, timings, volume requirements and budgets.Provide as much detail as possible in the brief and share this with your chosen fulfilment partner as soon as possible, not as an afterthought when the campaign is about to launch (yes, it does happen!).

This is the first opportunity for your fulfilment partner to be able to understand the plans you’ve been working on for weeks/months and to come up ways to add value and to deliver a joined up consumer experience so give them an opportunity to ask questions.

Listen to the recommendations given by your fulfilment partner because whilst you are the expert on your brand, they really understand how to engage consumers in a cost effective, measurable way. Speak to your creative agency; they will be able to help develop a strong call to action and visuals to support.

Ensure you have a clear and well thought through budget with contingency factored in – consider fixed fee insurance to ring fence your budget. MRM can support in this regard and has an established relationship with a fixed fee provider so we know what information is required to analyse the risk.

It’s worth remembering that promotions don’t just have to be about volume generation; get them right and they can have a significant impact in building a brand.

Know your crowd

Consider your target audience; make sure you understand who they are and what makes them tick. Where are they likely to be found and when? How do they behave? How do they like to be addressed? And then work out which channels they like to be reached across; in store, on pack, digital, social…

Which brings us to retailers. Grocery retail in particular is a cluttered environment with retailers conducting regular reviews of listings and asking for budget to support their category management plans, and not specifically working to your own promotional plans. So how do you create stand out of your campaign?

There are some obvious routes to consider from an on pack flash, in store POS, on pack codes – through to creating a retailer-specific campaign that can be supported with greater in-store marketing collateral.

Then create the message – what is your offer to them? Ask yourself, will it resonate with the target audience? And how best is it to convey your message across your chosen channels? An important point to consider here is your competitors. If everyone else is offering a coupon, why not try a taste guarantee or prize draw as these are perfect opportunities to gain insight into who’s buying your product and to create a marketing database whilst standing out from your competitors.

Another area to consider is your brand’s context in the wider world; is there anything topical that you can align to or a hot new trend that your target demographic is going nuts for? There could be a seasonal event or new craze that fits perfectly with your brand and audience – obvious but think what the World Cup generates for a beer brand. Or a certain baking themed TV programme generates for an ingredients brand.

Depending on your budget, message and objectives you may also be able to dial in to other media channels to market your campaign – VOD, social media, TV, radio, digital, CRM.

These should be carefully selected, because the correct combination can deliver the multiplier effect of amplifying the impact of your promotion way beyond your expectations.

The nuts and bolts

The mechanics of your campaign are important to ensure it incentivises the right behaviours and drives the right actions. If the offer is too convoluted to redeem, takes too much effort on the consumers’ part, or sets itself up for difficulties in the fulfilment phase it’s unlikely your campaign will be a success.

Amplification will be key to the success of your campaign. Going back to the previous point on where your target audience spends their time will influence which media channels you consider to promote your campaign but it’s likely that it will involve an integrated approach.

Ultimately the key question is “Is the campaign engaging, easy to understand and relevant to your audience?”

Be compliant

Time to dot the ‘I’s and cross the Ts’ – seek expert advice and make sure your promotional campaign is compliant with the CAP Code and that your Terms & Conditions are sufficiently detailed and clear. The IPM offers a legal service designed to do exactly that – and you can even use their IPM Seal to demonstrate compliance.

Don’t forget to use positive opt ins for any capture of consumer data – and be specific in how you will be using their data i.e. email, post, telephone. If you’re using a digital channel i.e. a promotional microsite, you must also show a privacy notice to this effect as well as providing a link to the promotion’s T&Cs.

On a final point re data – consider how long you will retain the data and how this will be used post-campaign. Why not create a customer database for marketing purposes (as long as you’ve got positive opt ins) as a way to engage? You may also get requests from consumers wanting to know what data you’re holding on them, so make sure you’ve got a defined process with your digital and/or fulfilment partner on how to handle such request as GDPR legislation means these must be responded to within one calendar month (see Subject Access Requests on the ICO website).

Before the campaign starts, it’s vital to make sure there is a Data Processing Agreement in place with any partner who will be processing customer data. This should define what data is to be processed, its purpose and classes of data and will also cover the agreed data retention period. More importantly, it will place responsibility on each Data Processor (remember, you as the client are the Data Controller) in terms of their liability to hold that data securely.

While it’s live

Using your clearly defined objectives, monitor the campaign performance and ROI throughout the campaign as there’s nothing worse than getting to the final week and looking at the redemptions, as there’s little that can be done at that stage! Agree reporting frequency with your fulfilment partner and give them access to as much data as possible; Google Analytics can be shared with agencies to help them understand customer engagement, as well as actual redemptions.

If you have any concerns that the campaign isn’t performing as expected, speak up as quickly as possible. If you’re running a digital campaign, it’s easy to make tweaks to the customer journey or to use social media to drive your target market to the website. It’s better to do it sooner, rather than later though!

Job done

So, your campaign has gone without a hitch, thousands of your target audience have engaged, responded and bought into your brand. Job done right? Wrong. Now is the time to measure, review and evaluate. Place your results against the original objectives and measure ROI. On a more practical level, talk to your fulfilment partner and your creative agency together to discuss what worked, what didn’t and importantly, what have you learned for next time?

MRM works in partnership with a wide range of clients to understand campaign objectives and help design the best solution to achieve them. They draw not only on a wealth of experience and expertise in digital and fulfilment, but also on our efficient purchasing power to add value.

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Lauren Miles from Mando gives advice on how to create promotions within a strict budget.

When there is little or no marketing budget, it doesn’t necessarily give reason to panic. With a restricted budget there are many great promotions to run. Even when creating a promotion under a strict budget there are many options to choose from, and importantly, still targeting customers effectively.

Research and concepts from industry professionals indicate that in fact, even when budgets are tight, there is still the need to market to customers. Those who dare to push forward and promote are those who flourish, and by advertising and marketing (when competitors are also struggling with reduced budgets), you can increase market share, return on investment and uplift in sales. Businesses who cut the marketing budget tend to under-perform, paving the way for competitors keeping their marketing spend constant, to over achieve, gain new customers and market share from others losses. Research has shown that consumers like the reassurance of familiar and well-known brands, it provides a sense of comfort and a key aspect for brands to manage is the balance between eye-catching price cuts versus adding value through offering customers something unique and diverse, as added-value promotions are more cost-effective to run than you may realise.

Money Back Guarantees and Try Me Free promotions are incredibly economical tools, in turn, giving the customer comfort and reassurance in the brand enabling them to claim their money back if not completely satisfied, removing the purchase barrier. Reducing the customer’s purchase risk advises your product is worth the asking price. Try Me Free promotions are proven to improve sales uplift, and are excellent for new product trials. Offering Taste Guarantees with new products encourages trial without fear, and if the customer doesn’t enjoy the product, they can return for a refund, and some restaurants for example KFC, will exchange for another meal of your choice. This in turn will increase brand trust, repeat purchase and enhance brand loyalty further down the line. The added bonus of a guarantee style promotion is the differentiation setting you apart from your competitors and most savvy shoppers will choose your product above everyone else’s; plus, these variations of promotions are cheaper to run than you think! These are extremely popular and effective promotions that feature in our top five promotional mechanics list, find out more in the link provided.

Brands often use coupons as a means to retain brand loyalty when budgets are tight, and although studies have previously shown that customers prefer getting something extra for free as opposed to receiving a discount, shoppers still delight in receiving a coupon from a brand that doesn’t normally do offers, making the customer connect more emotionally with the brand, and frequently leading to increased basket spend especially if a minimum order amount applies. To read about the different sales promotion mechanics click the link provided.

Attracting customers through value-added sales promotions can be a cost effective alternative to discounting your product. Discounting your product can lead the customer to have expectations and only buy your product when it is on offer, additionally with large discounts customers tend to be suspicious regarding quality and whether this has been compromised.

Mando can help you get the most out of your budget and we can do this through a detailed analysis, building a comprehensive risk profile across a range of promotions in various industries and countries, to gauge its impact and performance. Mando will then discuss all relevant findings, draw estimations and further educate on how best to strengthen your promotion within your budget.

Lauren is Senior Account and Marketing Executive at Mando. Mando (part of WPP) develop promotional rewards and incentives, which are born from science. Mando utilise data, grounded with reasoning, combined with insight to help you deliver exactly what your consumers want, with a solution that is right for your brand. Using unique data and expertise they provide complete solutions including promotional risk management, prepaid incentives and brand partnerships, which continuously help create some of the world’s most memorable marketing campaigns.

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