Sales Promotion Research

Research from the Institute of Sales Promotion has highlighted (again), that Joe Public likes not only promotional products but also sales promotions. I would of thought that everybody would have liked promotions surely? There is obviously no pleasing some people.

Apparently two-thirds of UK consumers say they welcome promotions because they ease the pressure on their finances and encourage them to try new products, while less than one in five say promotions encourage them to buy things they do not need.

As part of regular research conducted for the Advertising Association, 2,000 people were asked for their opinion about promotions, including Buy One Get One Free offers, price cuts and added value promotions. I just don’t see how anyone could be possible offended by this? No one is forcing anyone to buy anything, just the consumer is having the chance to purchase cut price products. Still 18% who agreed that “promotions encourage me to buy products I don’t really want.” The rest, 15%, did not know – I worry about these people.

Corporate Gifts Really Work ->

When one receives a well chosen promotional product, they have a warm feeling inside and have feeling of good will toward that business. To show my the point, I’ve selected a case study that shows just how powerful the effects of promotional products can be. This particular example was carried out by Darrell Marriot for a resort lodge in Vermont (USA), but the same principles can apply to practically any business.

Every year the luxury resort offers a special holiday bundle at a premium price, between Christmas and New Year. In previous years the resort failed to achieve a single booking for the following year, before their clients left to go home.

The goal for the hotel promotions team was to encourage their clients to book a place for next year, before they left the resort. To achieve this, the hotel had a generous promotional budget of $20,000 (in 1999) to be split between 120 families. Maybe your business can’t be quite so extravagant, but a well chosen small gift can go along way. A reputable business like gift selection for example, will put your business on the right path if your unsure.
 
The corporate promotions started with a direct-mail piece sent at Thanksgiving 1999 announcing the ‘Countdown to the Millennium,’ which included a letter from the company president. One of the first gifts was a single use Fuji camera. If guests dropped of their film by the deadline, they received their photos mounted in a commemorative album when they checked out.Other gifts were given every night of the week to the skiers, like a promotional wooden photo frame or playing cards in an attractive wooden box. Commemorative glassware and plates were also presented to the resort’s patrons during meals. 

Was all this effort a success? By the time the happy vacationers left, 40% of them had made reservations for the following year. Also, in the months that followed that 40% increased to 75%. Touchingly, 20% of the guests sent back thank you notes to the resort.

Case Study: 1

New research suggests that if a consumer is able to hold the goods they are browsing for a while before buying, he or she will be prepared to pay more them. The experiment was conducted by the Illinois and the Ohio State University, and will make an interesting reading for anyone linked with retail.

What happened was a coffee pot worth four dollars was handed to 144 participants, either for ten or thirty seconds. After holding the object, everyone was asked to right down how much they would be prepared to pay for that item…

Those who held the product for half a minute offered an average of $3.91, compared to just $2.44 from those who held the item for shorter amount of time. The theory from socio-scientists is that people don’t like to loose things once they have touched them.

This study bodes well for those business’s who invest in promotional products, as it seems once someone has touched a brand they suddenly make a connection with it.