#7 of 25 Things we know about what we don't know about Marketing Effectivenes
Wednesday July 9th 2008
Putting advertising & sales promotions together & running them AT THE SAME TIME, generates more business & higher returns than running them sequentially
Years ago, when considerably less experienced in marketing effectiveness evaluation than today, I suggested to marketers, based on a hunch and no evidence, that it might be best to run advertising and sales promotions at separate points in time. The notion was that this would extend the time over which our brand was in the consumers' mind and hence there would be more effectiveness from spreading the marketing activity.
How wrong I was. The evidence collected from a wide range of markets and for many brands, is that running advertising and in-store sales promotion together in the same time frame delivers better business and higher returns for the advertiser.
The evidence is conclusive. By giving potential brand buyers more than one reason to buy the brand, the advertising creates heightened reasons to buy (increased penetration) and the in-store sales promotions generate greater retail visibility & turns that heightened interest into more volume & increased frequency of use.
Brand values enhance the working of the promotion and the in-store promotion picks up and enhances the working of the advertising.
Despite the higher marketing expenditure per week this route demands, the compelling evidence is that this greater concentration of fire power creates more brand sales that more than repay the extra investment with a extra return that finance directors love
The tragedy is that this evidence has escaped the attention of so many. Advertising is regularly planned in complete isolation and disregard for what goes on in store. Communications planners talk endlessly about all the new communication channels but fail to mention in-store sales promotions. Advertising is planned in ignorance of the price of goods in store. Advertising effectiveness case histories are reported without reference to what promotions such as 3 for the price of 2 & BOGOF's, etc., have delivered.
The astute marketer rejects this separation and plans integrated advertising and in-store sales promotions, whilst others structure their businesses in separate stand alone silos - a topic to which we shall return in a forthcoming "25 Things we know about what we don't know"
Putting advertising & sales promotions together & running them AT THE SAME TIME, generates more business & higher returns than running them sequentially
Years ago, when considerably less experienced in marketing effectiveness evaluation than today, I suggested to marketers, based on a hunch and no evidence, that it might be best to run advertising and sales promotions at separate points in time. The notion was that this would extend the time over which our brand was in the consumers' mind and hence there would be more effectiveness from spreading the marketing activity.
How wrong I was. The evidence collected from a wide range of markets and for many brands, is that running advertising and in-store sales promotion together in the same time frame delivers better business and higher returns for the advertiser.
The evidence is conclusive. By giving potential brand buyers more than one reason to buy the brand, the advertising creates heightened reasons to buy (increased penetration) and the in-store sales promotions generate greater retail visibility & turns that heightened interest into more volume & increased frequency of use.
Brand values enhance the working of the promotion and the in-store promotion picks up and enhances the working of the advertising.
Despite the higher marketing expenditure per week this route demands, the compelling evidence is that this greater concentration of fire power creates more brand sales that more than repay the extra investment with a extra return that finance directors love
The tragedy is that this evidence has escaped the attention of so many. Advertising is regularly planned in complete isolation and disregard for what goes on in store. Communications planners talk endlessly about all the new communication channels but fail to mention in-store sales promotions. Advertising is planned in ignorance of the price of goods in store. Advertising effectiveness case histories are reported without reference to what promotions such as 3 for the price of 2 & BOGOF's, etc., have delivered.
The astute marketer rejects this separation and plans integrated advertising and in-store sales promotions, whilst others structure their businesses in separate stand alone silos - a topic to which we shall return in a forthcoming "25 Things we know about what we don't know"
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