Sales Promotions

Notice what is wrong with this photo? The K’s are switched. I chose this featured image intentionally to demonstrate that sales promotions require careful and deliberate decisions. In fact, they probably impact the long-term future of a company more than anything else. Questions need to be answered before proceeding. What is the purpose of the sales promotion? How will it impact the perception of the brand and the product? How will it affect current customers? What will be the time constraints on employees? How will it affect future sales?

Hemopet

NutriScan is a food sensitivity and intolerance test for animals and is proprietary to Hemopet. The consumer cost is a minimum of $298.00. Clearly, a purchase is weighed heavily. Hemopet has run approximately six promotions. Four of them were basic discounts. The two I led and influenced were more involved.

A couple of years ago, Hemopet was planning to discount the product for the holiday season and then raise the price right after the first of the year. I advised against the discount. I also suggested promoting the price increase deadling and delaying it to after the new year to snag income tax return dollars. The results were amazing.

Hemopet needed to solidify the validity of NutriScan. User experiences were definitely the way to go. The organization offered a discount in exchange for case studies. The discount code was disclosed after some questions were answered and photos were provided. Approximately 500 people jumped to this level. However, the outcome was the most important part to find out if the pet’s health improved or not. I am proud to say Hemopet ended up with 100 case studies to share on social media and its website.
Case Study Examples:
– Bradlee
– Rosie

PoopBags, Inc.

As a values-based, high end commodity product, PoopBags still needed to weigh the questions asked. So, the company decided to add twists and creativity to its sales promotions.

Due to the seasonal nature of the products, we would offer “Groupon” type deals to drive revenue. One of my favorites was “$50 Gets You $20 for the Future!” It was a blast to conceive of the creative copy. I especially enjoyed the prison mug shot theme we used.

We would have been remiss if we did not provide Cyber Monday specials. People just expect them. In 2011, we offered 15% off plus free bags and ran it from Thanksgiving to the following Monday. Of course, we had to mock the whole premise of a cyber sale on poop bags. Overall, the results proved this as successful as we increased sales 20% over the previous year.

A caveat did exist. We preferred not to offer discounts on our primary revenue driver, which is the made in the USA, compostable poop bags. If we did offer a discount on this product, we would generally ask for an exchange with our customers. For the 4th of July, we asked customers to forward the email to their networks. In turn, they would receive a coupon code. If their friends signed up, they would receive another coupon code.

In the pet product industry, the two major trade shows are within a few months of each other. Retailers will hold out until they see all of the deals and new products. Since we have a staple item, our trade promotion allows retailers the option to pre-order product and have it shipped at a later date.