Over the holidays I was shopping in Wal-Mart. Passing through the toy section, I noticed Mattel had a beautiful in-store promotion for the Barbie Brand. I was interested in what the promotion involved so I walked over to it. The booth was empty. The person responsible for handling the promotion was not around. I walked away disappointed. The Barbie brand’s promotion failed at the most important level – the consumer.
Brand’s want to positioned above the competition. You want to build loyal customers and have them pick your brand every time. To do so, a brand implements a strategic marketing plan. A successful marketing strategy encompasses understanding why consumers pick the other brand over yours.
Taken from the book “Loyalty Myths: Hyped Tactics That Will Put You Out of Business – and Proven Tactics That Really Work”, co-authored by Terry Varva, here are three reason why consumers switch brands:
1. The preferred brand is out of stock.
2. A competing brand offers better value because of a special promotion.
3. Different occasions dictate the need for products of differing levels of quality.
4. Variety or novelty is desired.
As a brand, you don’t want your consumer’s to pick the competitor. For a strategy you may focus on working with retailers to ensure your brand is never out of stock, have your retailers carry all variety’s of your brand (if applicable), and start in-store promotions.
You’ve implemented them, but how effective are they working? As a brand you might implement a nation wide in-store promotion but the follow through may be less than par. The in-store promotion could be jammed behind extra cases of soda stacked by a merchandiser where consumers would never see it. Or in my case, where the promotion lacked the person.
In-store promotions, stocking, and brand placement should be measured by a third party. Promotions and marketing costs a brand too much to be wasted on lack of at retail follow through.
What ways do you see brand’s promotions not effectively being followed through?
