In-Store Promotions

The term ‘In-Store Promotion' usually conjures up images of poorly photocopied fliers on coloured paper or an expensive exercise in misguided charity. All in-store promotions that fail do so because of one, or all, of the following reasons:

1. Lack of Clearly Defined Goals

If you don't know precisely what you want, you can't take steps to achieve it. If you just want to create interest, you could use it to gather information about your customers for your mailing list or perhaps measure customer satisfaction.

2. Poor Planning

Once you have defined your goal it is imperative to devise a plan and stick to it. Make sure it is easy for your customer to enter. This means having enough entry forms, pens, terms and conditions and an accompanying poster (A4 size minimum) that gives the important details and makes your customers really want to enter. The prize you offer should correlate to your customer's demographic. A new, premium product or service from your own range is ideal, but you can also do a lot with bartering goods and services with other business.

3. Poor Execution

As mentioned earlier, poorly photocopied flyers (even when printed on pastel-coloured paper) won't do. How your in-store promotion is presented directly reflects upon the quality of the prize and your own business. Quality need not be expensive. Earlier this year I provided a client with entry forms that were printed like a postcard, full colour promotion on one side, black and white questionnaire on the other. We went with postcards because they're less likely to be lost as is the case with paper. These postcards came to 4c each. Even if they had photocopied four forms per A4 page, spending valuable time at the copy-shop then trimming them all, they would still have been out of pocket.

If you set your goals, plan and execute your promotion successfully you will realise that your small investment has more than paid for itself. You will have an expanded knowledge of your customer base and in-turn a business that better caters to their needs.

Gene Munro