CPGmatters: Promotions Need to 'Engage' Consumers to Be Effective
Through a special arrangement, what follows is an excerpt of a current article from the monthly e-zine, CPGmatters, presented here for discussion.
Coupons and other promotions need to break away from traditional mass marketing and engage consumers in order to be effective tactics nowadays. Moreover, CPG marketers need to draw in consumers rather than push out brand messages to them.
"Now, more than ever, promotions are all about engagement," said Lisa Bradner, a consultant with Forrester Research in Chicago.
That was the key message delivered by Ms. Bradner and other executives speaking at the annual Industry Coupon Conference hosted by the Association of Coupon Professionals (ACP) in Miami. Mobile coupons, digital coupons and other such tactics are part of the new wave of interactive promotional marketing that today's consumers are responding to.
"Engagement is a necessary first step because - without it - you can't break through the clutter," said Ms. Bradner. "But engagement alone does not guarantee a sale. Promotions are a key way to link the two and need to be leveraged in that context."
In the past, brand marketing was about product consistency, trust, and an understanding of what the price-value equation was; that is, you get what you pay for, according to Ms. Bradner. Engagement was limited to such tactics as FSIs, endcaps, and predictable, timed promotions. The emergence of loyalty programs such as the early Green Stamps and the subsequent card-based frequent shopper programs were the first attempts at connection with consumers.
"We knew what we wanted to do and what the response mechanism was going to be," she said. "We knew how to measure it, and we could plan that promotional calendar 18 months in advance."
Today, the end goal - more sales - hasn't changed, she added, but the tactics have. "Coupons must move beyond 'one size fits all.'"
Ms. Bradner urged marketers to look into tactics that go from mass media to one-to-one engaged media. The latter means targeted coupons, promotions linked to shopper loyalty data, mobile-enabled targeting, and other sophisticated promotions involving the internet.
"The reason why people are excited about [mobile coupons] is that suddenly you have a device that people carry with them all the time," she said. "You can connect to an individual or to their data, whether it's mobile or a variety of other technologies. Think about the opportunities that you have to cut through the mass marketing and treat your customer segments differently. Give them a chance to opt in to you. Give them promotions and offers that say you know something about them and that they are special to you."
Discussion questions: What hurdles are preventing the shift from a mass media approach to coupons and other promotions to one based on one-to-one engaged media? Will one-on-one marketing eventually become the primary traffic driver for supermarkets?