Great promotions use all of these methods to reinforce the message your customer carries into store. So it’s vital that your above-the-line activity has the right backing in-store to succeed! Strategic use of barkers, floor stickers, FSDUs, in-store radio, retail events etc. will guarantee your launch or promotion generates maximum sales.

Issues with timing between your campaign going live and your product’s availability can see customers trying to buy a product they can’t find. Or worse still, your product hits stores but nobody knows due to a lag in your above-the-line campaign.

Timing is everything, and at Golley Slater we have the expertise to deliver outstanding results every time by coordinating in-store and above-the-line activity.

Our specialist retail team works together with brand owners, helping them connect with shoppers.  To see one of our campaigns for Lenor click here.

Emma Sutcliffe
Golley Slater Retail
Leeds

The most important factor about this trend is not the product – it is the occasion and its validity in our modern lifestyle. Despite this, retailers annually promote the ’spring clean’ event when very few of us will go anywhere near a feather duster.

Some of the best loved occasions have been engineered — from ‘Jif lemon day,’ to the more contrived ‘Doritos and a movie.’ But then there’s the inevitable jump onto the world cup bandwagon which often lacks a little imagination (Read about it in Marketing). Yes, the snacks and drinks market will see the undoubted benefits as it fits with the occasion of watching football, but how much more petrol will Esso sell offering free cardboard ‘medals’ with every £15 spend.

The occasion and product have to fit and create an emotional connection. By identifying the mood and matching it to both a suitable product and event, we have recipe for success. Retailers are constantly looking to create occasions, so what better way to support them, sell some products and raise your game.

Emma Sutcliffe
Golley Slater Retail
Leeds

Brands have always been able to play quality as the differentiator over retailers own label, but the gap is closing and in some categories is now negligible in the minds of shoppers. Therefore quality must now encompass a wider range of factors including perception, taste, performance, usage, convenience or meaningful association.

The question remains ‘Will the activity win over price conscious customers?’ If the promotion builds additional recognition and value for some well loved brands then it has a good chance of success.

Click here for the full article.

Emma Sutcliffe
Golley Slater Retail
Leeds

The only sector of marketing in the UK that has not gone into reverse in terms of spend has been digital, all other sectors have suffered to one degree or more. It’s clear that marketer’s consider digital to be an essential part of the marketing spend. Numerous brands are now thinking more carefully about how they develop their creative assets to work best in alternative video platforms such as mobile, podcasts and YouTube and less likely to jump straight into TV production without these elements being considered up-front.

The big story this year is the up-coming general election and how each political party conducts itself with digital and social media. The digital marketers here have really been wowed by the Obama campaign’s use of digital and in particular social networking to connect with voters. Everyone seems to be watching how the main political parties will conduct themselves. We are seeing a serious take up of smart phones and clients are very interested in what can be done through apps. Clients are seeing the benefits of mobile; they still rightly want to make sure it’s having a positive impact on both brand measures and sales.

John Kinder, Digital Managing Director

Brands and their agencies need to allow their customers to take the lead, challenge and interfere with the brand, products and services. The role of the agency is to act as a pathfinder and encourage the collaboration which leads to positive contributions from all interested parties in the shared passion around the brand.

Brands need to learn that consumers have sometimes more passion about a brand than they realize and this passion can be a brand’s biggest advocate or its biggest detractor depending on the way in which the brand has engaged and collaborated with them.

So brands need to embrace their customers’ misbehaviour, not ignore them!

To view Chris Lovell’s discussion on his Campaign Integration Essay 2009, ‘No need to smack’, please visit www.campaignlive.co.uk  

Chris Lovell, Group CEO