Viral Trade Promotion Events
When I drafted this article in late 2019 the working title was “What does it take to get a Trade Promotion Event to go viral?”. The context of the word “viral” has been re-claimed by Covid-19, but still this topic and title is relevant. CPG manufacturers and retailers have spent billions to promote products to shoppers who were distracted and time starved well prior to Covid-19. In our current reality, it is even more important to consider a few best practices when creating meaningful events.
One of my favorite retail leaders urged vendors to plan and execute events that would go viral. A Google search on “going viral” reveals according to Urban Dictionary, “something that goes viral is an image, video, or link that spreads rapidly through a population by being frequently shared with a number of individuals.” What would it take for someone to care so much about a promotional event to be willing to share it with their friends, family and followers?
“Thinking big” when executing trade promotions is a challenge for manufacturers prone to repeating the same events year after year. But going viral is a tall order, especially if the event is a temporary price reduction (TPR). It is quite a stretch to think a B2G1 (buy two get one free) on candy bars could go viral. Not only do most TPR events never go viral, but many sales promotions fail to grow sales. Absent going viral, there were historically three key levers needed to drive a meaningful increase in sales:
A. Ensure shelves are tagged properly to highlight the promotional price reduction
B. Secure incremental display space (plus making sure product is available)
C. Promote the TPR in the “circular” or store newsletter
When all three of these levers pull at the same time it is like winning the “Trifecta” and the promotion lift (amount of incremental sales generated) would be greater than if any of these tactics were done in isolation. Today, so much more is possible, and the importance of reaching shoppers in a meaningful way is even greater. “Mobile/Digital Everything”, eCommerce shopping and social media have changed the way people shop and so has the thinking behind how to plan and execute great trade events.
Perfect timing is one way to ensure that shoppers care about promotions enough to change their shopping behavior. There are very specific times a year where certain categories become hyper relevant. Each of the time-honored holidays (think Halloween, Easter, Summer Road Trip, etc.) are linked to certain products by tradition. Manufacturers who plan to be a part of the celebration can win share and those who do not will miss a very real sales driving opportunity. Fun Size candy for Halloween, jellybeans for Easter and car friendly snacks for a Summer Road Trip are good examples of products that are an important part of the celebration. A well-crafted promotion that adds to the party with seasonal appropriate content is welcome by shoppers who want to be festive and can help retailers bring the season to life in store and online.
Timing promotions to coincide with major life events is also a best practice. Shoppers who are experiencing firsts like owning their first puppy or moving into their first home are more open to learning about new products and appreciate the help and advice that can come with promotional events. Whether targeting major holidays or personal life events, timing matters because shoppers are most open to promotion when they are ready to buy or thinking about buying.
Once you get the promotion timing right, another important lever in today’s digital world is tailoring the content to match the moment. Whether it is the joy of a season or the intimacy of important life moments, many manufacturers will launch new products to match these important events by changing the product form, flavor, packaging or at least the label graphics to deliver relevant and compelling experience. Certainly, the very best of these, like the much anticipated “Shamrock Shake” or “pumpkin spice” can spread across social media and even make it onto the evening news.
Trade promotion alone is and will rarely ever be enough to “go viral”. A few examples had impact when first tried such as using street art to advertise product or pop-up events to launch new products, but these are the exception rather than the rule and can be quite expensive. Even when modifying the product itself to take advantage of the season, adding a hashtag and then promoting accordingly, going viral is a long shot. So the question has to be asked… Is having a trade promotion go viral even a valid goal/objective? Or has technology changed so much that there is a better way?
Technology continues to evolve and the timing is right to consider new types of events that combine trade and consumer marketing promotion. These join Sales and Marketing driven promotions would be tailored to individual consumer shopper preferences so that by definition they would never go viral. In the fourth and final article of this series, let's look at promotions that are so laser focused on a single individual that the masses just wouldn’t get it and "going viral" would be a sign the brand had missed its mark.
Originally published Apr 2020; https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:6661742243814137856/
