“Without promotion, something terrible happens – nothing!” – P. T. Barnum
Modern businesses operate in competitive and crowded markets spread across multiple continents and many time zones. The creative enterprise and the commercial organization alike face a business imperative to stand apart from the competition in their pursuit to create a distinct identity that will attract customers and help the business to thrive. Effective promotional campaigns represent one of the strategies through which a business can enhance its mind share, retain a persistent presence in the public eye, boost brand appeal and brand recognition, attract customer dollars, and expand the existing customer base.
A business or a brand can opt to use modern technology to fashion effective promotional campaigns because technology can impart a certain momentum to said campaigns. For instance, an e-commerce business can deploy chatbots to initiate and conduct an intelligent conversation with customers. We note that the chatbots are powered by algorithms and this technology can field all questions from human customers. The chatbots can be engineered to answer customer queries and customer questions at a moment’s notice, and this can help customers to discover products based on their preferences. In addition, the chatbots can enable customers to transact business at the e-commerce website at all times. These abilities can emerge as a key plank of the e-commerce operator’s promotional campaign, because online customers tend to discuss their brand experiences and the chatbots may feature prominently in such conversations.
Both brick-and-mortar enterprises and online businesses can choose to create effective promotional campaigns by formulating high profile and high visibility strategies. For instance, the distinctive brand colours of a sporting goods manufacturer can gain high visibility through the use of strings of LED lights wrapped around street furniture, such as light poles and traffic median dividers. A key aspect of modern urban-based civilization is manifest in vehicular traffic and therefore, such an outdoor campaign is guaranteed to raise the visibility quotient of said brand. The LED lights can be coded to display the brand colours to passing traffic and members of the general public, thereby reinforcing the distinctive colours of the brand in the public domain. In addition, the lights help to add an element of glamour to the urban landscape at night. This is an instance of a low-cost marketing campaign that hinges on environmentally conscious lighting technologies but creates a significant impact in terms of highlighting a particular brand.
Effective promotional campaigns can be designed keeping in mind the seasons of the planet. For instance, the rainy season is an annual phenomenon in most parts of the planet. People use umbrellas and rain suits to shield themselves from the weather. These devices can be embossed with the brand colours (or logo) of a software manufacturer and given away gratis in the course of a promotional campaign. Quality checks should be instituted during production to ensure that the promotional products conform to quality standards, thereby promoting wide acceptance among the recipients. This strategy essentially hinges on helping human beings, and therefore is ideally positioned to gain deep traction in all markets. The utilitarian nature of the product should help to prolong brand recall among customers. Every strategy has a potential downside and in this case, the enterprise may need to invest substantial resources to create large numbers of the said products so that the campaign has the desired impact on the market and the brand’s business fortunes. In addition, the said brand may have to contend with the fact that brand recall may fade when the seasons change.
A new player in the market may opt to create effective promotional campaigns that hinge on high velocity objects to enhance brand visibility in a crowded market. This is essential from a business perspective because competing brands may dominate static outdoor media, such as billboards and road side display hoardings. Colourful flags, pennants, and polymer-based display media can be affixed to passenger buses and high speed trains that traverse significant swathes of territory. In addition, vehicle wraps can also be designed for such modes of public transport in order to boost brand visibility for a certain enterprise. We note that motion defines the fundamental difference between static outdoor media, such as billboards, and the trains and buses mentioned above. The ability of these mass rapid transport systems to travel large distances automatically enables said brand to gain a disproportionately high visibility quotient. We also note that the propensity of present day customers to record pictures on smartphones presents the possibility of multiplying the visibility generated by such a brand promotional campaign.
Marketing departments and brand managers can use the spaces afforded by certain events to devise effective promotional campaigns. For instance, a manufacturer of stationery products may choose to give away high quality writing instruments and scratch pads to raise its visibility among students and young professionals. The sites of public examinations and work interviews are ideal for such a low-key brand promotional exercise. This type of a campaign has a focussed target group and therefore, the brand must exercise utmost caution so that said campaign does not disturb or disrupt the proceedings of the day. In a similar vein, manufacturers of musical instruments (and the components thereof) can choose an outdoor music festival as the site of effective promotional campaigns. Music lovers and enthusiasts attending the festival can have deep exposure to the said brands. A public endorsement by a festival performer can serve to deepen the connection between the brand and its customers. The said manufacturers and brand owners may also choose to sponsor part of the music festival in a bid to enhance brand visibility. However, caution needs to be exercised so that the brand image (and its message) is not garbled by the raucous nature of such outdoor events.
E-commerce business operators can resort to new tactics in an attempt to forge effective promotional campaigns. We note that most consumers have access to a personal e-mail inbox in modern times and this fact may be leveraged by said operators. Colourful and distinctively designed emails can be sent to individual customers highlighting seasonal promotional offers. The emails may bear a web-link that directly connects to the relevant e-commerce shopping app; clicking on the said web-link can launch the app and commence a possible online shopping session. We note that this promotional campaign connects two very different aspects of electronic communication – email and the shopping app. Further, an e-commerce operator may choose to highlight its business by inviting customers to join special online shopping groups. When the group attains a certain number of customers, it can qualify to receive preferential reviews of fresh merchandise and large discounts on group purchases. We could say that this tactic represents fresh thinking and business innovation that sets it apart from the cut-and-dried promotional campaigns often deployed by e-commerce enterprises.
In the preceding paragraphs, we have outlined the various options that can help businesses to create effective promotional campaigns. Every enterprise that decides to create and launch such campaigns must invest careful thought in terms of budget outlays and the chances of attaining the desired business outcomes. That said, we note that an effective campaign can help the average business to exceed its own expectations and projections in terms of anticipated business performance.