12. Promotional schemes

As with other weapons in the marketing armoury, be crystal clear about what you're trying to achieve with a promotional scheme. They can be very costly and very time-consuming if you allow your enthusiasm to run away with itself.

Conversely it can be a very targeted weapon and an appropriate creative approach can increase its perceived value well above its actual cost. An example I would cite of this is a promotion carried out by a leading condom brand to young people to encourage them to carry condoms just in case. The condom key-ring was developed which was a small plastic sleeve on a key-ring and just large enough to hold a single condom.

These plastic sleeves were produced with appropriate "slogans" on the front face. The result of this promotion was that the company were inundated with requests for this item by both consumers and health care professionals involved in promoting safer sex. This then resulted in considerable media attention and hence considerable free advertising of the brand. It even resulted in this promotional item being sold to health care professionals as they proceeded to be of great help in spreading the safer sex message.

This promotion did not cost money; it actually turned in a profit!

Your promotional scheme might be aimed at:

• consumers
• your retailers
• your distributors

With your customer audience of consumers/retailers/distributors. The objective of your promotional scheme might be:

• to generate new customers
• to entice current customers to use the product more frequently
• to entice current customers to purchase other products from your company
• to reward current customers