Feature: Promoters’ problem page plea

Dear Agony Aunt,

Is it me? As a young man in my 30s (years in the business that is), I seem to be turning into a real Victor Meldrew.

I spend my life building brands. I invest in insightful research, develop products with consumer affiliation and spend hard-earned company money on communicating the benefits of my brands and promoting their use.

In doing all of this, I hope to reduce the price elasticity of demand for my brands beyond that of commodities so that I can get a better return, one which justifies all my efforts and my shareholders financial risk.

My agencies tell me that I must realise life is becoming very complicated these days. Consumers have become “media literate” and all media is converging. Apparently people are using something called “new media”, which has been around for nearly 20 years. My grandmother uses it to order stuff from Tesco, she tells me.

When I was younger, I thought sales promo

tion could be applied with different strategic objectives in mind, such as gaining trial, encouraging repeat purchase, stocking up to frustrate a competitors launch. In fact we did all sorts of interesting stuff.

Convergence increases the need for holistic brand presentation. I would have thought this would create opportunities for fantastic integrated and creative promotional vehicles and techniques. Not so. The answer it seems is to just cut price.

I used to think that simply cutting price disproportionately reduced profits for the brand owner, and over time reduced the hard-fought-for brand equity. Again this is not so. BOGOFS, I am now told, are a great trial-gaining mechanic (though frankly it escapes me why anyone would want to try two of something they had never tried, rather than one. I would have used a half-price pack or free sample in the old days).

In their desire to offer integrated solutions it seems to me that more and more people are applying sales promotion techniques across more media channels than ever before, yet seem to understand the capabilities, techniques and legalities of the discipline less and less.

Surely no self-respecting marketer or agency practitioner today can expect to succeed without a detailed understanding of sales promotion and its use across different media channels.

Marketing directors have always spent their time co-ordinating the efforts of their teams and agencies to ensure a holistic presentation of their brands. In today’s convergent world, where sales promotion techniques can and are applied so widely, it seems to me that both they and their shareholders would sleep more soundly if those who profess to practise the discipline were more deeply acquainted with it.

Or is it just me?

Yours,

Andrew Marsden