Folks, Sales Promotion is a difficult course. There, I?ve said it. I thought about sugar-coating things for this blog, but ? it?s the Truth, Ruth as Love Daddy would say.

First let me back up and define ?Sales Promotion? for you: A marketing activity aimed at stimulating consumers or trade partners to take action resulting in quicker or larger purchases. The most common sales promotion is a coupon. (note: this is a “condensed” definition I wrote. For a more robust definition … take IMC 617!)

One of the main questions we face in IMC 617 is essentially: ?how does sales promotion fit into IMC?? Hmmm. And we also ask: ?is it even possible for sales promotion to be used as part of an IMC plan?? Hmmm. Uhh ?these aren?t questions we had to face in public relations and creative strategy. Well, OK, I wasn?t facing them, I don?t know about the rest of you! :-) We know that public relations and advertising activities will have positive effect on the brand. Usually the question is ?how much advertising and PR we can afford given our ROI objectives??

The reason the matter is so complex is that we know sales promotion can potentially damage a brand, especially when it changes users? perceptions of its price/value (for example, by making the brand seem cheaper or by lowering the perceived ?real price? so people feel less willing to pay full price when the promotion ends). It can also encourage users to try a brand, which can lead them to genuinely prefer it or continue to purchase it out of habit. So it?s risky. There are a lot of rules, and a lot of exceptions to those rules. I feel like I need to handle sales promotion with an oven mitt!

Speaking of the oven (ha), have you ever noticed that the price of a whole turkey drops quite a bit around Thanksgiving? Now does that change our perception of the everyday price and value of a whole turkey? I don?t really think so; we know the prices are ?crazy low? because retailers are using low-priced turkeys as a loss leader to get us into the store where we?ll buy all the trimmings. I think Thanksgiving is a good ?event? to run a sales promotion around, since we know ?the season is the reason? for the price.

So what do you think about “holiday deals”? Do you think they have any impact on brand equity?

Speaking of the holidays, next time I want to talk about how everyone is planning to manage Thanksgiving dinner while working and matriculating in the IMC program. How are you doing it? I?ve got coupons!

– April

Also:

?Ask April? (like ?Ask Todd?) is Open! Click ?reply to article? and ask any old thing that comes to your mind about IMC 617 and the IMC program.