Marketing Communications

374 CHAPTER 12 BRAND ACTIVATION

Introduction

Consumers have an abundance of choice. Th ey can quickly compare alternatives on the

Internet or solicit other consumers’ opinions. Products are available anywhere and anytime.

Further, competition in many markets has become fi erce as product categories moved in their

maturity stage. In such environments, passive communications are not enough. Advertising,

PR and sponsorship can help build awareness, brand knowledge and brand image, but

ultimately companies need sales. In that respect brand activation plays an important role.

Brand activation shift s the focus of marketing communications to the heart of marketing:

stimulating the purchase process.^1 Brand activation means bringing consumers from a passive

to an active state, to a state where they are ready to purchase and repurchase. Th is chapter

discusses three important tools by which brand activation can occur: sales promotions,

point-of-purchase communications and brand experiences.

Sales promotions

Unlike many other instruments in the communications mix, sales promotions are a category

of techniques aimed at increasing sales in the short run, and therefore mostly used for a short

period of time.^2 Essentially, sales promotions are ‘action communications’ to generate extra

sales, both from existing customers purchasing more products and by (temporarily) attract-

ing new customers, on the basis of a temporary incentive or deal. Th e main characteristics of

promotions are that they are limited in time and space, they off er better value for money and

they attempt to provoke an immediate behavioural response.

Th e eff ectiveness of promotions is oft en attributed to the operant conditioning mech-

anism: behaviour that is rewarded serves to reinforce future behaviour. Sales promotions

are, as a result of this type of conditioning, quickly recognised by consumers as a reinforcer, a

reward, based on their past experience. For this mechanism to take place, the incentive has

to be important enough for a consumer to notice a relevant diff erence from his or her anchor-

point, i.e. the ‘normal’ price quality expectation. In other words, the incentive has to exceed

the ‘just noticeable diff erence threshold’.^3 Promotions have to be substantial enough to trigger

a behavioural response.

The growing importance of sales promotions

Sales promotions are a very important instrument of the communications mix. In 1980,

American companies spent 44% of their advertising and promotions budget on advertising.^4

Since then, sales promotion expenditures have constantly increased, outweighing advertising

expenditures.^5 Now, about one-third of UK and Chinese grocery sales and more than 40% of

US grocery sales come from products on promotion.^6 Th is evolution can be attributed to a

number of factors ( Figure 12.1 ).

In an increasing number of product categories, more and more brands and product lines

are off ered and diff erences in intrinsic qualities between brands have become smaller.

Th erefore, brand diff erentiation on the basis of advertising becomes increasingly diffi cult.

Promotion is seen as a useful tool to attract the attention of target groups and to ‘seduce’ them

into buying their brands. Traditional advertising has also become less eff ective due to com-

munications clutter and ad avoidance. Th erefore, marketers are looking for other tools to

attract consumers’ attention to their brands.

Consumers, at least for certain fast-moving consumer product categories, are less brand

loyal, and are becoming increasingly price-conscious, a trend which the recent worldwide

crisis only increased.^7 Th is results in an increased response to material incentives, such as

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