Sales promotion 481
coupons, ‘one entry per proof-of-purchase’
competitions, ‘collectable’ premiums, or
cumulative customer loyalty programmes.
6 Promotions can strengthen brand positioning. A
1985 study by Frankel & Co. and Perception
Research Services found that, following
exposure to adverts featuring promotions for a
brand, consumers’ opinion of the brand (on
issues like quality, value and caring about
customers) improved by over 8 percentage
points, compared to those exposed to only
‘brand sell’ adverts.
McKenna (1990) predicted a future renaissance
of business based on a marriage of the ‘soft
skills’ and creativity of marketing with the
power of new technology. Many might relate
to this in terms of advertising, where technol-
ogy allows us to view spectacular computer-
created images which go beyond anything
reality has to offer. However, it is in sales
promotions that many of the most exciting
marriages of technology and creativity are
occurring. An example comes from Hiram
Walker, who spent $10 million on the Cutty
Sark Virtual Voyage, a two and a half minute
virtual reality experience allowing participants
to act as the legendary smuggler William
McCoy, fighting high seas, pirates and hostile
stowaways to bring the bottles of Cutty Sark
ashore. Surviving a virtual life-or-death
experience to rescue a brand is an experience
which is almost bound to cement the partici-
pants’ relationship with that brand. Another
example comes from Hewlett-Packard’s MOPy
fish, a virtual pet which can be downloaded
from the Internet and can act as a computer
screensaver. The HP website will also provide
items of ‘tank’ furniture including a plant,
rock, bubbles and a thermometer. These can
only be downloaded in exchange for MOPy
points, and the chief way of accumulating
these is to use your HP printer to make
‘Multiple Original Printouts’. In exchange for
3200 points you can acquire some aphrodisiac
fish food which makes MOPy, who was devel-
oped using over 1 million photographs of a
real parrot fish, become so affectionate that it
will plant a kiss on the inside of the monitor.
Quite what Mr Holder would make of MOPy’s
antics is hard to imagine, but the general
principle of getting extra custom out of people
by offering them additional benefits is one that
he would recognize and approve of.
The academic view of promotions still
suffers from something of a preoccupation
with issues of promotional price reduction,
coupon redemption, and their effect on con-
sumer behaviour and reference pricing. This is
a pity, because it keeps the academic focus on
those elements of promotion which are in
relative decline, at a time when marketing
practice is injecting so much energy and crea-
tivity into developing innovative promotions.
The implications for marketing management
of the boom in promotions is becoming
increasingly clear; what sales promotion lacks
in glamour compared to advertising, it more
than makes up for in flexibility and effective-
ness. In today’s competitive marketplace, the
professional management of sales promotion
has become a matter of life and death for an
ever growing number of brands.References
Aaker, D. A. (1991) Managing Brand Equity, Free
Press.
Ailawadi, K. L. and Neslin, S. A. (1998) The
Effect of Promotion on Consumption: Buying
More and Consuming It Faster, Journal of
Marketing Research, 35 , August, 390–398.
Ailawadi, K. L., Lehmann, D. R. and Neslin, S.
A. (2001) Market Response to a Major Policy
Change in the Marketing Mix: Learning from
Procter & Gamble’s Value Pricing Strategy,
Journal of Marketing, 65 (1), 44–61.
Baker, M. J. (1998) Macmillan Dictionary of
Marketing and Advertising, 3rd edn,
Macmillan.
Bawa, K. and Shoemaker, R. W. (1987) The
Coupon-Prone Consumer: Some Findings