Marketing guru says... #1

This is the first of (hopefully) a series of real life Marketing case studies that moi has come across or experienced personally. Some are good, some are bad, some just leave you scratching your head. Hopefully, those of you who are or hoping to be in Marketing can learn from all those who have gone before you and come out of it alive...

So on with the first lesson.

Your product is a new kid on the block. You decide to mimic a promotion that your competitor (who has been in the market waaaaay longer than you, like since 1930) carried out successfully 15 years ago. Mechanics are simple: consumer collects your product packaging, redeems them for a special premium at less than half of its normal RSP. Unlike your competitor before you, you can't convince the retailers to work with you to set up redemption booths in their stores and you are not willing to spend moolah on paying for a few redemption outlets (e.g. post offices, etc). So you engage a courier service to send the premiums to the consumers' homes and collect payment from them after they have sent in their packaging.

Sounds complicated? It sure as damn hell is. From the word go there are several issues that plague this promotion:

• 15 years is a long enough time for consumer tastes and preferences to evolve. How can you be sure that this same premium used 15 years ago will appeal to consumers now?
• Nobody with a sound mind would collect your packaging, mail it out and wait for someone to call them to arrange delivery. Singaporean consumers are an impatient lot and demand for INSTANT GRATIFICATION all the time. Unless of course your prize is damn enticing.
• What happens if the courier service does not deliver (heheh, deliver, geddit, geddit?) on its promise? Consumers start calling 'Where the f**k is my stuff?', courier says 'Wah lau! We go there nobody at home mah!'. Other similar scenarios start becoming normal occurences during the promo period.
• What if the stock forecasted, which is customised specially for this promo by the suppliers, is over-indented for? Can't return to the suppiler so bring to Batam and sell??

At the end of the day, true enough there was A LOT (and I mean A LOT like in the thousands) of stock leftover from the promo. Supplier says they can't take it back 'cos it was customised specially for this promotion. Meanwhile, the stock just sits in the warehouse collecting dust while the people responsible for this fantastic idea continue scratching their heads.

*Moral of the story: If you can't think of any fantastic promotion ideas, the last thing you should do is copy something your competitor has done. It undermines the creativity of the Marketing personnel and leaves your competitor feeling full of themselves (imitation is the best form of flattery, remember?). Just do a damn lucky draw and give away something. Cash, holidays, gadgets. Anything! Never make you consumer pay for anything UNLESS you are cock sure you can convince them they are getting a jolly good deal (not unlike the Chatuchak market kind).*