A good promotion can work hard for your brand and deliver impressive short-term results to your company’s bottom line. As part of an overall marketing mix that may include a strong Web presence, advertising, public relations and personal selling, a promotion may be designed to stimulate trial or increase consumer demand. But there can be times when you should think differently about what you might want to achieve with a promotion. As an example, the economic situation we face right now is tough for both businesses and consumers; we see this as an opportunity to use promotions for long-term brand building in addition to short-term dollar results. Specifically, we can use promotional development as more of an engagement tool to get closer to your consumer. How? Well, think about providing them with a memorable experience as opposed to a discount or a special offer. An experience where their voice gets heard and their opinions can be shared. On-line, this type of experience can be easily achieved through a user-generated-content or social networking type of campaign. Off-line, you may want to consider ways to get new products in front of your consumers and get them to discuss their opinions. Effective promotions can also reward consumers by providing them with an engaging brand interaction. A recent LS print campaign for Glidden Evermore Paint points consumers to a microsite and a sweepstakes for a home makeover. Once on the site, visitors can enter the contest and are also able to print out stencils for use in their homes, giving them another use for the Glidden product. The results have been tremendous. In just three months, the site has had over 580,000 visitors, with each user spending more than five minutes interacting with the content at www.gliddenmakeover.com. You can see how this promotion takes on a whole new meaning because the target audience is involved. The experience is more rewarding, and the promotion builds brand equity in addition to sales. The metrics for a program like this should include hard measures (sales, web traffic, inquiries) as well as the softer ones (engagement, enjoyment, brand attitude), with the ultimate goal of brand adoption and preference.

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