Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

During a short stint in Sales, I was told that Mars never price promoted products that could be stocked or “hamstered”. Not sure whether that’s true or not, especially as promotions are a good way to round off the AIDA process - they stimulate customers to act - but that can also do you damage.
Interestingly, [...]

On the last MBA course we discussed companies that expect you to go to great lengths just to take part in a promotion. A bit like the mineral company that expects you to drink huge amounts of water just to get a stuffed toy, here is another promotion that really does ask too much [...]

I love this. My thanks go to the MBA (who shall remain nameless) for this wonderful example of a medium breaking through the message and actually creating the message. As you wait. Forget “guerilla marketing”, forget clever slogans, this gets my vote!

For more marvellous media, see here.

My thanks go to Florian from the last MBA course for pointing out, like many of his counterparts, that German beer advertising does have a sense of humour. Granted, it’s not so dominant as it is in the States and the UK - especially among the Top 10, hmm, they tend to bang away on [...]

Loyalty promotions are a great way to lock in customers and are common in habitual purchase markets where customers buy products time and again - without reconsidering why. Butter, milk, sugar, salt, water: just some of the often commodity style products that fall into this category.
So when Eiszeit Quell, a regional German water brand came [...]

I was intrigued by this point of sale (POS) merchandising unit on open display at a Spanish airport. But I guess that is where the product manager or trade marketing people want it to be: on open display. POS material is all about calling out to people and encouraging them to buy.

But what I wonder [...]

A few years ago, the German authorities were forced by European legislation to allow loyalty programs and cut-throat price promotions (which were previously banned; they were considered “Kaufzwang”, a strange expression meaning “purchase obligation” - huh? your product’s on promotion, so that’s forcing me to buy it?!? Bizarre logic).

P&G: bogof promotion on Wick
Well, Proctor [...]

Activating customers
I sometimes despair at how naive brand managers can be. Here we have a simple promotion designed to stimulate interest and get customers involved. This falls firmly under A for Action in the AIDA process.
With this postcard, Wella customers can win a weekend at a beauty farm or any of 19 other prizes. [...]

In the top left-hand corner of the Ansoff matrix you are encouraged to achieve business growth by sticking with the same products and sticking with the same market or customer. Easier said than done.
But loyalty promotions and below-the-line activity that encourage customers to use more are one way of doing this.
Here’s a good example. Ocean [...]

A simple guideline for designing posters - ask yourself, “How long will people stand in front of the poster and take everything in?”. The answer will normally be, around a second.
I was once told that a poster should be a simple headline - better still your slogan - with a picture underneath of the [...]