Sales Promotion Project by Milind Gandhi
Content
International Marketing > Sales Promotion and International Marketing - By Milind Gandhi
International Marketing and Sales Promotion
-By Milind Gandhi
SALES PROMOTION
AND INTERNATIONAL MARKETING
ADVERTISING DOESN'T SUCCEED IN INDIA, PROMOTION DOES!!
The problem with advertising is that it tries to force its way into the mind of the customer, which is resisted by him. In any advertising campaign, the aim of the advertiser is to occupy a position in the customer's mind. For this the advertiser plans an elaborate campaign and unleashes his brand using a variety of media. The moment we see an advertisement on the TV we press the remote button and change the channel. Thus, the advertising campaign that was carried out by spending crores of rupees goes ineffective as the mind of the customer is closed to any communication being done by an advertisement. Any print advertisement may also be admired for its creativity or design but it seldom persuades us to go
and buy that product. This single-minded opposition to any advertisement by the customer makes the whole focus on advertising by the companies very fruitless. Another feature of a significant number of advertising campaigns is that instead of advertising the inherent value of the product, they try to associate specific human emotions with their product. Hence, you will buy soap so that you can be superior to everyone else in the office. Similarly, you will buy a shoe not because you need it but because it will make you independent. Indian customers have not accepted this kind of advertising and are known for looking out for the total utility of the product rather than get swayed by the advertisements.
The Indian customer wants full value for his money and this is what is provided by the various promotional schemes in the market. The promotions help in achieving quick sales to acquire higher market share and gain a lead over the competitors. They also help in generating an excitement around the brand, with some interesting promotions stimulating the customer to try a particular product. A further advantage in promotions is that the marketer has to take just a small cut in his profits but the perceived value of the offer to the customer remains high and helps in driving up sales. There have been a number of cases where a promotional scheme has increased the sales of a product and helped it to gain market share over its products. One of the first companies that started the promotion schemes was the south India based Cavincare, which gave away 1 free shampoo sachets of its brand Chik on returning 5 empty ones. The scheme was a huge success and it helped in making the company a Rs. 580 crore in a very short period of time. The promotions also help the company in offering the customers a chance of using other products of the same company. This cross promotion helps the company in promoting other product of theirs to their regular users. HLL offers cross company product mixes e.g. a 200 gm Bru packet comes with one Cadbury's Dairy Milk; Red Label tea packet comes with Cadbury's Five Star depending on the size. Colgate-Palmolive's price discounts and consumer offers include cross-company offers e.g.50 gm Colgate toothpowder is accompanied by 25 gm Tata Tea and a 100 gm Colgate toothpowder comes with a 24-carat goldplated pendant. The consumer durables sector has also been on a promotion spree that has been very effective for the sales of these companies. In the Diwali season, Samsung launched the ‘Phir Se Phod ke Dekho’ consumer promotion scheme. The Phir Se Phod ke Dekho promotion came packaged as a coconut, which the customer picks on the purchase of a Samsung product. On breaking the coconut the customer was to get a 10 gm silver coin and a chance to win a gift. The gifts include an allexpenses-paid trip to South Africa to watch the World Cup 2003 or a Samsung VCD player, vacuum cleaner or mobile phone, among others. It worked splendidly as Samsung achieved its highest-ever turnover in November 2002
with sales of Rs. 150 crore. The strong consumer acceptance of the offer enabled the company to achieve a growth of 35 per cent in sales over the same period that year.
EBOOKERS
Ebookers is the No.1 online travel agency and claims to have survived 9/11 by having the lowest, most flexible price structure in the industry. The travel industry is fiercely competitive with the top four high street agencies controlling more than 40% of the market. On-line travel bookings accounted for only 10% of the total expenditure in the UK, France and Germany. Ebookers had little history of promotional activity, but knew it had worked well for a major competitor. OBJECTIVES: To drive new users to log on to Ebookers website and deliver 25,000 web page impressions. To encourage site visitors to register their e-mail address to grow the subscription database.
Ultimately to drive visitors to purchase their travel requirements. To use the promotional activity to build the Ebookers.com brand. CAMPAIGN SUMMARY: Coffee Republic, with a matching target audience and located close to offices, was selected as a communication partner. Posters placed in the windows of 75 outlets offered customers the chance to win four nights in Paris, Milan or New York with Ebookers. These were supported inside by A-boards and counter top posters. Customers purchasing coffee to go were supplied with a cup sleeve carrying a scratch-off panel concealing a reference number. On returning to their desks they scratched off the panel to reveal the number and then logged on to Ebookers.com and input their number to find out if it was a winner. The promotion was also communicated by e-mail to the Ebookers database of 250,000 subscribers. A promotion specific page at Ebookers.com ensured ease of entry and those without winning numbers input their e-mail addresses to subscribe to Ebookers newsletter for another chance to win. Banners on the home
page directed users to Coffee Republic to pick up a coffee cup sleeve. Consumers could also enter without purchase by posting their details to the offer address.
IMPACT: 58,015 page impressions were received. 97% of these were new users. 3,267 e-mail addresses were registered. 580 (1%) of visitors went on to look at Ebookers products and of these 87 (15%) purchased a holiday directly as a result of the promotion. This generated revenue of £43,500.
300,000 branded coffee cup sleeves were distributed and branded POS was prominent in 75 Coffee Republic outlets for a period of 4 weeks.
NIKON COOLPIX DIGITAL CAMERAS
Nikon, the Japan based digital camera manufacturer came up with this unique promotional offer in the European countries. The compact digital camera market is saturated with many reputable brands. Of these 5-6 manufacturers offer a very similar product in terms of quality, features, range and benefits. Nikon’s new range of Coolpix digital cameras was striving to set itself apart from competitors and to become the number one choice for both consumers and retailers.
OBJECTIVES:
• • • • •
To raise awareness and interest of the Nikon range of Coolpix digital cameras within the trade. To incentivise and motivate counter staff to pro-actively demonstrate and recommend the new Nikon range of Coolpix digital cameras. To drive traffic to participating retailers and give consumers a reason to touch and interact with the Coolpix cameras leading to purchase. To collect data for future relationship development and offers. To meet or exceed sales targets based on a 10% increase from previous year.
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY:
Tightly targeted communication was the key to success and focused on digital camera users/buyers from affluent families with children. A proximity model identified the target households in relation to potential participating retailers.
A leaflet delivered to ½ million homes contained a photo memory card that fitted any of the Nikon Coolpix digital cameras. Recipients were invited to visit their local retailer and request a demonstration, the only way to activate their memory card and find out whether they had won an adventure prize.
If the LCD screen revealed an image the consumer could claim the nominated prize. Counter staff were motivated to demonstrate the cameras by winning the same prize as the consumer. The adventure prizes included white water rafting or a flight over Ayres rock ideal opportunities to use a digital camera. Camera purchasers could also enter a competition to win one of 1,000 TDK 64Mb memory cards.
The promotion was supported in store by POS, a volume trade incentive and Nikon Special Awards for those retailers who went that extra mile to display POS material and generally supported the promotion.
IMPACT: • • • • • Sales exceeded target for each month of the promotional period Average percentage sales increase over the promotional period was 30%. The overall theme NIKON COOLPIX ADVENTURES successfully encompassed both the retailer incentive and the consumer offer. Retail staff responded with interest and enthusiasm. The memory card encouraged interaction with the brand.
AWARDS:
• • • •
ISP Gold Award winner 2004: Culture, Leisure and Travel ISP Gold Award winner 2004: Direct Marketing ISP Silver Award winner 2004: New Product Launch ISP Highly Commended campaign 2004: Prize Promotions
LG ELECTRONICS
With the ongoing festive seasons , the close to 7,000 crore LG Electronics launched its mega DHOOM MACHA DE offer and burnt a hefty Rs 100 crore to drive this message into every home. The promo entailed assured gift on every purchase. The total outgo on the gifts itself was hefty Rs 50 crore
OBJECTIVE:
The campaign was to clock a whopping Rs 1,300 crore sales by the end of this festive season by logging a 31 percent value growth in the electronics category, a 43 percent growth in the appliance category and a 48 percent growth in the information technology category by the end of the offer. In the flat television segment it was expecting a massive 300 percent growth in the sale.
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY:
The offer ‘DHOOM MACDA DE’ had all the excitement packaged in a rocket that the customer could handpick on any purchase . Customers could win assured gifts from a slew of high value products varying from projection & flatiron television sets , wireless home theatres, fridges , washing machine clocks etc there were bumper prizes as well and a luxury car and other high-tech product . Also part of offer was LG’s brand ambassador Sunil Gavaskar visiting some of the lucky customers
IMPACT:
Company received an overwhelming response from across the country for this promotion.
HAIER APPLIANCES
If the Koreans are aggressive in their promotion drives, can the Chinese be far off? “Not in any ways” seems to be what the Chinese white goods major Haier Appliances is saying. And the result is a cool Rs 35 crore spend in the form a scratch and win offer titled ‘ZINDAGI KA TRUMP’.
OBJECTIVE:
“With this offer the company hopes to reach out to a very large number of customers
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY:
ZINGAGI KA TRUMP entails assured gifts on every purchase and is worth nearly Rs 10 Crore . TRhis is how the offer works every buyer will be given a pack of playing cards on scratching the trump card in the card pak consumer can win various attractive gifts ranging from Tv Sets , DVD player , microwave , rice cookers , weighing scale .
IMPACT:
Dhabhai says there has been an impressive feed back both from customers as well as the trading community . “ Company have recived feedback from dealers that in the present season our offer is the best
MARUTI SUZUKI
It seems that the Motown is in a festive frenzy too. Strong sales from limited time-bound offer are a very clear indication of this.
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY:
On platter was a gift cheque for every Zen and WagonR buyer. A Zen buyer could walk home with Rs 11.000 in gift check along with other freebies like insurance and stereo system totaling Rs 18,000 and taking the total discount to Rs 29,000. Similarly every WagonR buyer carried home a gift cheque of Rs 15,000 and free stereo system worth Rs 11,500 taking the total value freebies to Rs 26,500.
IMPACT:
These both mpodels have been loggong very good sales at 7,700 units WagonR has its alltime best sales in October, While Zen logged a sale of 5,700 units in the same month. The sales figures says it all – over 27,000 units
HYUNDAI MOTORS
The special offer from the country’s second largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motors during this Diwali season was a smart success with the company selling 26600 santro Xings, its flagship model. And remember All this within a matter of just three days
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY:
This hot offer timed well to fall just before the festival of lights was valid only on Nov 8,9 and 10 on all the four Santro Xing Models with the offer price ranging from Rs 3,00,001 to Rs 3,39,359. This worked out to be a coo; discount of Rs 40000 per car.
IMPACT:
The sales figure say it all. These three days saw around 30 percent increase in the sale figures at 26600 units from the comparable figures in October The offer “ WAH KYA XING HAI !” The advertisement billed the dramatic 71 percent increase in the October sales as well the export figures touching the onelakh-mark as the reason for the offer. In this sense this promotional offer was a departure from the festivalcentric offer that have comeup from other durable and automobile players which created their own clutter.
PAESSLER GMBH
Paessler GmbH, a small company based in Fuerth, Germany, specializes in web server test and monitoring software. By using the shareware principle and reaping the opportunities of the internet, this small business has managed to sell their software to customers in more than 70 countries.
PROBLEM:
Paessler GmbH were facing the classic shareware obstacle. They had a first-class product range, but simply weren't getting enough people to see it. They'd tried an assortment of software solutions, including AddSoft and WebPosition softwares, but still weren't achieving the sort of sales figures they'd hoped for. We became the solution they were looking for, as the graph below shows.
RESULTS:
The results were fantastic! According to Dirk Paessler of Paessler GmbH, "sales started to climb within the first month of our working together. After three months, sales had actually tripled, and as we moved over six months, the sales were at five times their original level. After eighteen months, monthly sales had increased by a staggering 3090%!" IPCheck Server Monitor and the Webserver Stress Tool are getting the attention they deserve.
FAIRLOGIC SYSTEMS
Fairlogic Systems is a small company based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that specializes in email and newsletter software.
PROBLEM:
Their main product, WorldCast, faced the reasonably common obstacle of operating in a full market, with a very high level of competition. In this situation, even the highest quality products may be easily overlooked, and not receive the attention they deserve.
RESULTS:
Fairlogic Systems engaged the services of Shareware Promotions at the start of August 2001. After only two months, they were seeing a consistent 10% increase in sales each month. By November, this had increased to a 50% increase over the August sales, and a 120% increase over the previous January sales. This was helped by receiving a 5 Cow rating on the TuCows network - a site that Fairlogic Systems had been unable to get a listing with themselves, and the fact that the traffic to their website had now almost doubled. Fairlogic Systems now had a new problem to face - that of having to engage a third party solution to handle the additional bandwidth, as for the first time, their web host ’s allocated quantity was not enough! "Our traffic has also almost doubled in page views, and we have now even had to hire getafile.com to host our download files, as our web host’s bandwidth was no longer enough to cope with the new volume!" Jose Bastos, Fairlogic Systems
PIZZA HUT
The world’s largest pizza chain with over 12,500 restaurants across 91 countries, Pizza Hut is the highest-flying brand of Yum! Restaurants International. Pizza Hut made its foray in India with a dine-in restaurant in Bangalore in June 1996. Starting with six restaurants in its first year, Pizza Hut has expanded to 73 restaurants in 19 cities and plans to scale up to 100 restaurants by end-2004.
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY:
Over the years, Pizza Hut has invested time and resources in understanding the market and customer preferences. The advertising strategy for Pizza Hut is twofold. Firstly, laying emphasis on it being an international brand with an Indian heart, Pizza Hut’s communication is reflective of family values, family bonding, etc. Take for instance, Pizza Hut’s arranged marriage commercial in Indian settings, and the Palat pizza commercial in Hinglish. Secondly, highlighting the premise that the pizza is a catalyst that brings people together ensures that this is a brand that connects with the Indian consumer. Today, Pizza Hut spends approximately Rs 10-12 crore on advertising annually using a media mix of print, television and radio.
IMPACT:
Pizza Hut is a successful brand today. Considering that the pizza is a food foreign to the Indian palate, this is no small feat. Pizza Hut tried to develop a bond with the Indian consumer and it has successfully done that.
CONCLUSION
In today's time with the recession in the market continuing, the companies see promotion as being immensely helpful in sustaining them in this tough period. In fact, 30 percent of TV advertising is accounted for by the consumer promotion advertisements. Hence, the verdict is clear, the Indian customer wants more tangible benefits for his money rather than just hot air. So in order to gain competitive advantage over their rivals, companies are better advised to develop suitable promotions for their customers rather than just relying on advertising.
International Marketing and Sales Promotion
-By Milind Gandhi
SALES PROMOTION
AND INTERNATIONAL MARKETING
ADVERTISING DOESN'T SUCCEED IN INDIA, PROMOTION DOES!!
The problem with advertising is that it tries to force its way into the mind of the customer, which is resisted by him. In any advertising campaign, the aim of the advertiser is to occupy a position in the customer's mind. For this the advertiser plans an elaborate campaign and unleashes his brand using a variety of media. The moment we see an advertisement on the TV we press the remote button and change the channel. Thus, the advertising campaign that was carried out by spending crores of rupees goes ineffective as the mind of the customer is closed to any communication being done by an advertisement. Any print advertisement may also be admired for its creativity or design but it seldom persuades us to go
and buy that product. This single-minded opposition to any advertisement by the customer makes the whole focus on advertising by the companies very fruitless. Another feature of a significant number of advertising campaigns is that instead of advertising the inherent value of the product, they try to associate specific human emotions with their product. Hence, you will buy soap so that you can be superior to everyone else in the office. Similarly, you will buy a shoe not because you need it but because it will make you independent. Indian customers have not accepted this kind of advertising and are known for looking out for the total utility of the product rather than get swayed by the advertisements.
The Indian customer wants full value for his money and this is what is provided by the various promotional schemes in the market. The promotions help in achieving quick sales to acquire higher market share and gain a lead over the competitors. They also help in generating an excitement around the brand, with some interesting promotions stimulating the customer to try a particular product. A further advantage in promotions is that the marketer has to take just a small cut in his profits but the perceived value of the offer to the customer remains high and helps in driving up sales. There have been a number of cases where a promotional scheme has increased the sales of a product and helped it to gain market share over its products. One of the first companies that started the promotion schemes was the south India based Cavincare, which gave away 1 free shampoo sachets of its brand Chik on returning 5 empty ones. The scheme was a huge success and it helped in making the company a Rs. 580 crore in a very short period of time. The promotions also help the company in offering the customers a chance of using other products of the same company. This cross promotion helps the company in promoting other product of theirs to their regular users. HLL offers cross company product mixes e.g. a 200 gm Bru packet comes with one Cadbury's Dairy Milk; Red Label tea packet comes with Cadbury's Five Star depending on the size. Colgate-Palmolive's price discounts and consumer offers include cross-company offers e.g.50 gm Colgate toothpowder is accompanied by 25 gm Tata Tea and a 100 gm Colgate toothpowder comes with a 24-carat goldplated pendant. The consumer durables sector has also been on a promotion spree that has been very effective for the sales of these companies. In the Diwali season, Samsung launched the ‘Phir Se Phod ke Dekho’ consumer promotion scheme. The Phir Se Phod ke Dekho promotion came packaged as a coconut, which the customer picks on the purchase of a Samsung product. On breaking the coconut the customer was to get a 10 gm silver coin and a chance to win a gift. The gifts include an allexpenses-paid trip to South Africa to watch the World Cup 2003 or a Samsung VCD player, vacuum cleaner or mobile phone, among others. It worked splendidly as Samsung achieved its highest-ever turnover in November 2002
with sales of Rs. 150 crore. The strong consumer acceptance of the offer enabled the company to achieve a growth of 35 per cent in sales over the same period that year.
EBOOKERS
Ebookers is the No.1 online travel agency and claims to have survived 9/11 by having the lowest, most flexible price structure in the industry. The travel industry is fiercely competitive with the top four high street agencies controlling more than 40% of the market. On-line travel bookings accounted for only 10% of the total expenditure in the UK, France and Germany. Ebookers had little history of promotional activity, but knew it had worked well for a major competitor. OBJECTIVES: To drive new users to log on to Ebookers website and deliver 25,000 web page impressions. To encourage site visitors to register their e-mail address to grow the subscription database.
Ultimately to drive visitors to purchase their travel requirements. To use the promotional activity to build the Ebookers.com brand. CAMPAIGN SUMMARY: Coffee Republic, with a matching target audience and located close to offices, was selected as a communication partner. Posters placed in the windows of 75 outlets offered customers the chance to win four nights in Paris, Milan or New York with Ebookers. These were supported inside by A-boards and counter top posters. Customers purchasing coffee to go were supplied with a cup sleeve carrying a scratch-off panel concealing a reference number. On returning to their desks they scratched off the panel to reveal the number and then logged on to Ebookers.com and input their number to find out if it was a winner. The promotion was also communicated by e-mail to the Ebookers database of 250,000 subscribers. A promotion specific page at Ebookers.com ensured ease of entry and those without winning numbers input their e-mail addresses to subscribe to Ebookers newsletter for another chance to win. Banners on the home
page directed users to Coffee Republic to pick up a coffee cup sleeve. Consumers could also enter without purchase by posting their details to the offer address.
IMPACT: 58,015 page impressions were received. 97% of these were new users. 3,267 e-mail addresses were registered. 580 (1%) of visitors went on to look at Ebookers products and of these 87 (15%) purchased a holiday directly as a result of the promotion. This generated revenue of £43,500.
300,000 branded coffee cup sleeves were distributed and branded POS was prominent in 75 Coffee Republic outlets for a period of 4 weeks.
NIKON COOLPIX DIGITAL CAMERAS
Nikon, the Japan based digital camera manufacturer came up with this unique promotional offer in the European countries. The compact digital camera market is saturated with many reputable brands. Of these 5-6 manufacturers offer a very similar product in terms of quality, features, range and benefits. Nikon’s new range of Coolpix digital cameras was striving to set itself apart from competitors and to become the number one choice for both consumers and retailers.
OBJECTIVES:
• • • • •
To raise awareness and interest of the Nikon range of Coolpix digital cameras within the trade. To incentivise and motivate counter staff to pro-actively demonstrate and recommend the new Nikon range of Coolpix digital cameras. To drive traffic to participating retailers and give consumers a reason to touch and interact with the Coolpix cameras leading to purchase. To collect data for future relationship development and offers. To meet or exceed sales targets based on a 10% increase from previous year.
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY:
Tightly targeted communication was the key to success and focused on digital camera users/buyers from affluent families with children. A proximity model identified the target households in relation to potential participating retailers.
A leaflet delivered to ½ million homes contained a photo memory card that fitted any of the Nikon Coolpix digital cameras. Recipients were invited to visit their local retailer and request a demonstration, the only way to activate their memory card and find out whether they had won an adventure prize.
If the LCD screen revealed an image the consumer could claim the nominated prize. Counter staff were motivated to demonstrate the cameras by winning the same prize as the consumer. The adventure prizes included white water rafting or a flight over Ayres rock ideal opportunities to use a digital camera. Camera purchasers could also enter a competition to win one of 1,000 TDK 64Mb memory cards.
The promotion was supported in store by POS, a volume trade incentive and Nikon Special Awards for those retailers who went that extra mile to display POS material and generally supported the promotion.
IMPACT: • • • • • Sales exceeded target for each month of the promotional period Average percentage sales increase over the promotional period was 30%. The overall theme NIKON COOLPIX ADVENTURES successfully encompassed both the retailer incentive and the consumer offer. Retail staff responded with interest and enthusiasm. The memory card encouraged interaction with the brand.
AWARDS:
• • • •
ISP Gold Award winner 2004: Culture, Leisure and Travel ISP Gold Award winner 2004: Direct Marketing ISP Silver Award winner 2004: New Product Launch ISP Highly Commended campaign 2004: Prize Promotions
LG ELECTRONICS
With the ongoing festive seasons , the close to 7,000 crore LG Electronics launched its mega DHOOM MACHA DE offer and burnt a hefty Rs 100 crore to drive this message into every home. The promo entailed assured gift on every purchase. The total outgo on the gifts itself was hefty Rs 50 crore
OBJECTIVE:
The campaign was to clock a whopping Rs 1,300 crore sales by the end of this festive season by logging a 31 percent value growth in the electronics category, a 43 percent growth in the appliance category and a 48 percent growth in the information technology category by the end of the offer. In the flat television segment it was expecting a massive 300 percent growth in the sale.
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY:
The offer ‘DHOOM MACDA DE’ had all the excitement packaged in a rocket that the customer could handpick on any purchase . Customers could win assured gifts from a slew of high value products varying from projection & flatiron television sets , wireless home theatres, fridges , washing machine clocks etc there were bumper prizes as well and a luxury car and other high-tech product . Also part of offer was LG’s brand ambassador Sunil Gavaskar visiting some of the lucky customers
IMPACT:
Company received an overwhelming response from across the country for this promotion.
HAIER APPLIANCES
If the Koreans are aggressive in their promotion drives, can the Chinese be far off? “Not in any ways” seems to be what the Chinese white goods major Haier Appliances is saying. And the result is a cool Rs 35 crore spend in the form a scratch and win offer titled ‘ZINDAGI KA TRUMP’.
OBJECTIVE:
“With this offer the company hopes to reach out to a very large number of customers
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY:
ZINGAGI KA TRUMP entails assured gifts on every purchase and is worth nearly Rs 10 Crore . TRhis is how the offer works every buyer will be given a pack of playing cards on scratching the trump card in the card pak consumer can win various attractive gifts ranging from Tv Sets , DVD player , microwave , rice cookers , weighing scale .
IMPACT:
Dhabhai says there has been an impressive feed back both from customers as well as the trading community . “ Company have recived feedback from dealers that in the present season our offer is the best
MARUTI SUZUKI
It seems that the Motown is in a festive frenzy too. Strong sales from limited time-bound offer are a very clear indication of this.
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY:
On platter was a gift cheque for every Zen and WagonR buyer. A Zen buyer could walk home with Rs 11.000 in gift check along with other freebies like insurance and stereo system totaling Rs 18,000 and taking the total discount to Rs 29,000. Similarly every WagonR buyer carried home a gift cheque of Rs 15,000 and free stereo system worth Rs 11,500 taking the total value freebies to Rs 26,500.
IMPACT:
These both mpodels have been loggong very good sales at 7,700 units WagonR has its alltime best sales in October, While Zen logged a sale of 5,700 units in the same month. The sales figures says it all – over 27,000 units
HYUNDAI MOTORS
The special offer from the country’s second largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motors during this Diwali season was a smart success with the company selling 26600 santro Xings, its flagship model. And remember All this within a matter of just three days
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY:
This hot offer timed well to fall just before the festival of lights was valid only on Nov 8,9 and 10 on all the four Santro Xing Models with the offer price ranging from Rs 3,00,001 to Rs 3,39,359. This worked out to be a coo; discount of Rs 40000 per car.
IMPACT:
The sales figure say it all. These three days saw around 30 percent increase in the sale figures at 26600 units from the comparable figures in October The offer “ WAH KYA XING HAI !” The advertisement billed the dramatic 71 percent increase in the October sales as well the export figures touching the onelakh-mark as the reason for the offer. In this sense this promotional offer was a departure from the festivalcentric offer that have comeup from other durable and automobile players which created their own clutter.
PAESSLER GMBH
Paessler GmbH, a small company based in Fuerth, Germany, specializes in web server test and monitoring software. By using the shareware principle and reaping the opportunities of the internet, this small business has managed to sell their software to customers in more than 70 countries.
PROBLEM:
Paessler GmbH were facing the classic shareware obstacle. They had a first-class product range, but simply weren't getting enough people to see it. They'd tried an assortment of software solutions, including AddSoft and WebPosition softwares, but still weren't achieving the sort of sales figures they'd hoped for. We became the solution they were looking for, as the graph below shows.
RESULTS:
The results were fantastic! According to Dirk Paessler of Paessler GmbH, "sales started to climb within the first month of our working together. After three months, sales had actually tripled, and as we moved over six months, the sales were at five times their original level. After eighteen months, monthly sales had increased by a staggering 3090%!" IPCheck Server Monitor and the Webserver Stress Tool are getting the attention they deserve.
FAIRLOGIC SYSTEMS
Fairlogic Systems is a small company based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that specializes in email and newsletter software.
PROBLEM:
Their main product, WorldCast, faced the reasonably common obstacle of operating in a full market, with a very high level of competition. In this situation, even the highest quality products may be easily overlooked, and not receive the attention they deserve.
RESULTS:
Fairlogic Systems engaged the services of Shareware Promotions at the start of August 2001. After only two months, they were seeing a consistent 10% increase in sales each month. By November, this had increased to a 50% increase over the August sales, and a 120% increase over the previous January sales. This was helped by receiving a 5 Cow rating on the TuCows network - a site that Fairlogic Systems had been unable to get a listing with themselves, and the fact that the traffic to their website had now almost doubled. Fairlogic Systems now had a new problem to face - that of having to engage a third party solution to handle the additional bandwidth, as for the first time, their web host ’s allocated quantity was not enough! "Our traffic has also almost doubled in page views, and we have now even had to hire getafile.com to host our download files, as our web host’s bandwidth was no longer enough to cope with the new volume!" Jose Bastos, Fairlogic Systems
PIZZA HUT
The world’s largest pizza chain with over 12,500 restaurants across 91 countries, Pizza Hut is the highest-flying brand of Yum! Restaurants International. Pizza Hut made its foray in India with a dine-in restaurant in Bangalore in June 1996. Starting with six restaurants in its first year, Pizza Hut has expanded to 73 restaurants in 19 cities and plans to scale up to 100 restaurants by end-2004.
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY:
Over the years, Pizza Hut has invested time and resources in understanding the market and customer preferences. The advertising strategy for Pizza Hut is twofold. Firstly, laying emphasis on it being an international brand with an Indian heart, Pizza Hut’s communication is reflective of family values, family bonding, etc. Take for instance, Pizza Hut’s arranged marriage commercial in Indian settings, and the Palat pizza commercial in Hinglish. Secondly, highlighting the premise that the pizza is a catalyst that brings people together ensures that this is a brand that connects with the Indian consumer. Today, Pizza Hut spends approximately Rs 10-12 crore on advertising annually using a media mix of print, television and radio.
IMPACT:
Pizza Hut is a successful brand today. Considering that the pizza is a food foreign to the Indian palate, this is no small feat. Pizza Hut tried to develop a bond with the Indian consumer and it has successfully done that.
CONCLUSION
In today's time with the recession in the market continuing, the companies see promotion as being immensely helpful in sustaining them in this tough period. In fact, 30 percent of TV advertising is accounted for by the consumer promotion advertisements. Hence, the verdict is clear, the Indian customer wants more tangible benefits for his money rather than just hot air. So in order to gain competitive advantage over their rivals, companies are better advised to develop suitable promotions for their customers rather than just relying on advertising.
