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Sales Promotion is not a science, however by following these guidelines you will find that a sales promotion can be effective and rewarding. Consumers today are better informed, they are shopping more intelligently than ever before, analysing the worth in added value programs and buying branded products they know and trust.

Today’s marketer needs to seek promotional programs that will move the most volume, at the lowest possible cost per sale. To achieve these objectives requires, more than ever before, well defined objectives and effective tactics.
Following are 10 simply laid out practices and guidelines which will help you to establish these objectives and employ productive tactics.

1)  UNDERSTAND YOUR PRODUCTS POSITION IN IT’S ENVIRONMENT
It is imperative that you understand your brands positioning in the marketing environment before developing a brief. In formulating your plan you should take into account purchase patterns and decisions, brand image, positioning and pricing relative to the competition, by constructing a program which is both strategically and tactically suited to your brand.

2)  RECOGNISE AND RELECT ADVERTISING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES.
Marketers spend a tremendous amount of time, effort and money developing, establishing and protecting their brands image. Promotions are simply another tool the smart marketer can use to help reinforce that image, while achieving short term volume measures. It has to be recognised that the consumer does not distinguish between an ad and a promotion. Although not tied down by the same product features and benefits presentation requirements, a promotion should be strategically sound.

3)  UNDERSTAND YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
This is one of the most basic and integral parts in developing any promotional campaign. Any promotional program usually has a number of target audiences,  eg: the consumer, the trade and the sales force. The abundance of alternative media forms today provides numerous Cost-efficient ways to reach the broadcast audience as well as the narrowest.

4)  UNDERSTAND THE BRANDS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE TRADE
The trade can have a major impact on the success or failure of any promotion. Many manufacturers are all vying for the consumers attention and co-operation – so make it easy and create incentives – not just discounts, but real promotional support designed to increase their sales.

5)  RECOGNISE THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF YOUR SALES FORCE.
Many a strong promotion has failed due to the material never appearing outside of the salespersons car boot. Working with the sales force to understand the types of materials they can both display and maintain, is essential to the successful promotion. Prior to the instore execution of a program, recognise that the sales persons job begins long beforehand with selling to the trade. Support materials and possibly incentives greatly increase the promotions chance for success.

6)  KNOW THE RESULTS OF PREVIOUS PROMOTIONS
Evaluating the results of a promotion is never an easy task. Don’t fool yourself. Was your redemption rate good, or were your key competitors suffering from major stock out problems. Field store checks, the trades response, and the sales forces feedback are valuable resources for the assessment of any program. The success of your future programs will depend not on whether the promotion was successful, but why.

7)  DEFINE YOUR OBJECTIVES – ARE THEY ATTAINABLE
Be realistic in an assessment of your market and your product. Recognise the consumers reaction to a proposition.  Make it simple, the more complex and time consuming it is to participate, the lower the response rate. Think short term and long term gain.

8)  GIVE THE CONSUMER A CHANCE TO BENEFIT.
With easy access to new technologies such as the Internet today’s consumers are more sophisticated and more cynical than ever before. Make new technology work for you not vice versa. A contest with a major prize can still benefit the consumer if linked with automatic entry.

9)  CREATIVITY IS ESSENTIAL
Assume success until proven otherwise. Many a great idea has been killed because of historical limitations being placed on the shoulders of a new concept. Lateral thinking with working experience can produce a promotion that is not only award winning, but achieves winning results.

10)  HAVE FUN
Sales promotion provides you with the opportunity to add to your products excitement for both the consumer and your sales team. The more fun that goes into a program, the more customers will enjoy them, and the more successful your promotion will be. A promotion that is well designed, executed on time, on budget, and provides valuable learning for future programs, is always a success.