Is there such a thing as a free lunch?

A free give away may appear to be great value to a consumer, but it is important that it also adds value to your brand. For example, if you give away a free umbrella, this may seem like a great deal, but if the umbrella is poorly made and breaks, then the consumer may end up feeling that the shoddy freebie is a reflection of your brand. So how do we perfect the art of giving something for nothing without blowing the budget or appearing cheap?

The fundamental principle of any promotional activity is to acquire, retain or reactivate customers. The question is how does one achieve this objective? The art of an effective promotion is to tap into the motivations of the consumer and create a campaign with talkability. With any promotion that offers an incentive or prize, the actual prize on offer is critical to the overall success of the campaign and to its level of talkability. This element is at the core of the consumer’s motivational psyche i.e. is that prize on offer stimulating me to remain loyal to that brand?

Consumer promotions are not only about increasing sales but they also act as a critical part of the marketing strategy to develop brand awareness within a specific channel. At the same time they create an environment from which to educate existing and potential customers about new products in the market.

Whatever the age or demographics of your target market the prize has to be something that is inherently going to be of interest to the intended recipients.  If it’s not the motivational pull towards the brand or incentive scheme will not exist, they won’t engage with the product or scheme and ultimately the promotion won’t be a success.

Companies are gaining far more return on investment by offering imaginative and unique third party offers or prizes, which because they are tailored, allow the brand to extend its identity throughout all the elements of the promotional campaign. It’s this bespoke approach combined with creating standout third party offers, prizes or partnerships within budget, which is paramount to the success of a campaign.

The misconception is that you need to spend thousands of pounds to create an imaginative prize or partnership, which creates the necessary buzz. This is simply not the case, the challenge is to be creative and remain true to the brand regardless of the budget.

Published by Breathe on Wednesday, May 5 2010.