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What has been the most interesting sales promotion you have engineered so far?
My best sales promotion to date has been for Good Knight liquid vapouriser, dubbed "Welcome to Family" promotion. It was an extremely strategic, large-scale promotion with multiple consumer touch points. We found an interesting way of creating buzz in a low-involvement category so as to increase the number of machines per home.
The liquid vapouriser was available only in red earlier. Based on the insight that people might want the vapouriser dispenser to match the overall look of a room, we started manufacturing it in different colours such as blue, green, purple and introduced them as the Colour Play range. The campaign lasted for two months - July and August 2012 - a period chosen to coincide with the so-called mosquito season.
What was the primary objective behind the campaign?
This promotion was done keeping in mind two objectives: first, to maintain our market leadership, and second to increase penetration and reach new consumers because once you have entered a home with a dispenser you can sell refills only. Hence, getting new consumers for the machines was very important.
What kind of promotion was it? How was it designed?
We marked the campaign with a discount scheme that combined a machine and a refill pack for Rs 63 (the machine plus refill was sold for Rs 99 and and a standalone refill for Rs 54 then).
The promotion was supported by television, print, digital and retail activations. It focused largely on brand-building. Take the TV ad for instance - it was only in the last five seconds of the 40-second commercial that we talked of the new range. The storyboard talked of the presence of Good Knight in all kinds of homes and families in India in a humorous tone and then invited consumers to join in the Good Knight family by choosing one from the Colour Play range.
Retail activation took the form of product displays across general trade and modern trade stores. The celebratory displays of Good Knight Advanced Activ+ Colour Play machines found their way in over 10,000 general trade stores and 200 modern trade stores across India.
What were the challenges, especially in convincing the trade for this?
The one hiccup that we could have faced related to the general tendency among our trade partners to stock just one or two colours of a machine. This would have defeated the thought behind the promotion - of giving options to the consumer. We had to overcome this through heavy merchandising at the point of sale; strong demand pull also helped overcome trade resistance.
Innovative product display units that showcased the entire range of colours were created for GCPL partner outlets (golden club outlets). No additional incentive was given to the trade to stock the entire range of colours. The invitation pricing of the offer helped create consumer pull in trade.
| ‘Welcome to Family’ |
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To increase the number of machines per home and reach out to new customers
Target
Apart from putting more machines per home, the Colour Play range was also a distribution expansion initiative for Good Knight machines. The campaign helped the brand add over 1 lakh outlets
Plan
The liquid vapouriser was available only in red earlier. Based on the insight that people might want the vapouriser dispenser to match the overall look of a room, we started manufacturing it in different colours such as blue, green, purple and introduced them as the ‘Colour Play’ range
Outcome
The seeding or sales of new machines rose by 22 per cent during the promotion period (July-August 2012)
Who partnered you in it?
A number of specialised agencies worked on this and helped create different elements of the campaign. Creative agency JWT conceptualised and executed the advertising campaign "Welcome to the Family." Elephant Design was roped in to create the vibrant Colour Play packaging; and the retail merchandising solutions were created by Brandmark Solutions.
What was its direct and measurable impact on the sales and the brand? In the final analysis, how effective was the campaign?
The promotion was immensely successful as we exceeded all metrics. The seeding or sales of new machines rose by 22 per cent during this period. Post this promotion, we strengthened our market leadership as our share increased significantly in the next quarter.
Apart from putting more machines per home, the Colour Play range was also a distribution expansion initiative for Good Knight machines. The campaign helped the brand add over 1 lakh outlets. Distribution for Good Knight machines went up from 4.23 lakh retail outlets in January 2012 to 5.25 lakh outlets in September 2012.
The intent of the campaign was to celebrate Good Knight's leadership position and expand the 'Good Knight family'. The campaign stuck to its objectives in letter and spirit. Owing to its strategic significance, we brought the campaign back just before the onset of the mosquito season this year.
Don't sales promotions incur high long-term costs for the company?
As long as a sales promotion is strategic in nature - like GoodKnight's 'Welcome to Family' promotion - and helps in building a brand's franchise, it does end up paying for itself over a period of time.
Sunil Kataria
COO, sales, marketing and SAARC, Godrej Consumer Products
