LAS VEGAS– Do the math. Seriously, spell it out on a sign. That’s what a panelist at a 2018 NACS Show educational session, Promotions That Work, said about enhancing the effects of product promotions, bundling and “two-fers.”
Focusing on tactical execution, C.J. Watson, vice president of retail sales for electronic-cigarette maker Juul Labs, San Francisco, said something as simple as physically writing the mathematical savings helps customers understand the value of a discount and ultimately leads to higher participation and redemption rates.
Recalling his experience with a drugstore chain, Watson said signage explaining that a $2 discount meant a product worth $9.99 could be purchased for $7.99 led to a significant improvement in customer response.
Similarly, promotional signage needs to stay up during the entire promotional period. He recounted testing a two-month-long promotion in which one set of stores removed signage after only a month. The promotions fared far better at stores that kept the signage up for the two-month promotional period, Watson said.
At the same educational session, Dafna Gabel, vice president of insights for SwiftIQ, Chicago, said retailers can maximize the effectiveness of promotions if they are cognizant of everything that can affect the campaign’s success.
Several of those elements include communication to consumers, the appropriate offer and timing of the program. Tracking information such as what’s on customer receipts, or tender data, can allow retailers to home in on basket information, what products people commonly purchase together and when they buy them. Understanding control-test baselines and variances can ultimately help retailers understand the success of a promotion or allow them to tweak future promotions to achieve better results, she said.
Retailers also need to act on the information they receive, Gabel said: “The timing of the data analysis is important in order to affect future decisions.”
Photograph by CSP Staff
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