3 Promotions While in the past the Company had willingly participated in pro-
motions and competitions where the prize was a Rover car, the client value of
such events was seen as mainly PR potential. For Conquest ’91, Rover again
contributed a car for a competition in a major credit card magazine (selected
because of its readership profile).
This was one of a series of promotional opportunities and the most suc-
cessful example. Entrants to the competition were not asked directly if they
wanted to participate in the pre-purchase programme.They were simply asked
to supply their repurchase details and to indicate if they were happy for Rover
to contact them again. Each entrant was subsequently sent a letter explaining
what would happen to their information and offering them the chance to opt
out. In this way Rover was ‘controlling the process’. Entrants perceived that they
were initiating further contact with Rover, and the database was only updated
with interested prospective customers.
This campaign – which industry sources suggest would cost around £20 000
(including the cost of the car) – produced some 36 000 contacts out of a total
competition entry of some 130 000.
A total budget, suggested to be in the region of £100 000, was given to this
promotional element of the marketing mix and is thought to have yielded a
total of 85 000 prospects.
An overview of the Conquest ‘91 process is shown in Figure 2.4.2 together
with the key steps. The process will now be described in further detail.
What happened next?
All prospects approaching their purchase window received a redesigned
VIP pack from the Company about two months before they intended to
purchase. The whole emphasis of this was on selling the new image of
Rover as well as its products. With a covering personalised letter the pack
included:
1 A highly visual, specially designed brochure about the model said to be of most
interest to the prospect.
2 A booklet which indicated the various specifications available for that model.
3 A price list.
4 A booklet which promoted the Company and the overall range of cars, showing
alternatives and reassuring prospects about the ‘new’ Rover.
5 Incentive vouchers and a gift booklet. The strategy here was to provide a
voucher for a test drive, a purchase, or both. Once the prospect had completed
one of these actions, the dealer would stamp the voucher by way of confirma-
tion and it could then be submitted by the prospect to claim a ‘thank you for
participating’ gift from the booklet.
Special design features of the new VIP pack were its high-quality image
and its flexibility. Image was especially important to emphasise Rover
106 Relationship Marketing