When we speak of international promotions, we usually think of major, worldwide activity promoting a branded product in many countries, at the same time, under the same theme. A great deal more international promotion consists of activity that is designed in one country and then also implemented in another. It is multi-local rather than global. On a trip round the Far East, promotions were found to be quite common, including using earlier case studies! People understand the basics, and BOGOF has clearly entered several languages. A truly international promotion should appear in a number of countries, though not necessarily at the same time or in exactly the same form. This is the direction in which promotional activity has developed in multinational companies. There is no substitute for real-time understanding of markets; international campaigns must be built on up-to-date local understanding. This chapter concentrates more on online opportunities because the opportunity is greater as the web is universal. Inserts and direct mail do work (they have postal services). Press advertising is not always common. All online tools are available, from e-mail campaigns to search-engine marketing, banners and buttons. Across the 27 EU countries, the language of business is increasingly English.
By way of example, let’s look at some EU online facts.
Author’s comments on EU trading (Table 13.1):
Table 13.1 EU trading online (409 million citizens)
Source: Postnord
• The UK is the leader in online purchases.
• Payments: it is interesting to see that whereas credit/debit cards are most popular in the UK, France and the Nordic countries, they are less popular elsewhere.
• Paypal or similar is popular in Spain and Italy (Alipay also in Spain).
Not shown in the table: four out of ten consumers have bought from foreign sites. Germany leads here (34 million citizens/46 per cent of the population) followed by the UK (28 million/54 per cent), then France (23 million/43 per cent). Fifty-six per cent of the Nordic population have bought from a foreign site. Forty-five million Europeans have bought from the USA and 30 million from China. The UK head the numbers in each case.
Payment
Only five payment methods can be found in all European countries: credit cards, debit cards, e-payment providers, advance payment and instalments (see Figures 13.1 and 13.2).
Internet. International research from RetailMeNot and the Centre for Retail Research projects that:
Figure 13.1
Online payment methods in Europe
Source : Translation Laboratory.
• Online sales in the US will grow by 15 per cent in 2014 to £189.3 billion, while in Europe, sales are expected to rise by 18 per cent to £131.2 billion.
• The UK, France and Germany are projected to be responsible for the bulk of this growth in Europe, accounting for 81 per cent of the online sales in the eight European markets expected in 2014. The UK is the largest market in Europe, with sales of £38.8 billion in 2013, and is expected to account for more than a third (34 per cent) of all online retail sales in the eight European markets surveyed in 2014. The report forecasts that £45 billion will be spent online in the UK in 2014 – an increase of 16 per cent on online consumer spending compared with the previous year.
Figure 13.2 Card use by country (Europe)
Giulio Montemagno, Senior Vice President International at digital coupon marketplace RetailMeNot, which owns Vouchercodes.co.uk in the UK, stated:
• ‘In 2014, we are expecting to see online sales across Europe grow at a rate that is 11.9 times faster than in-store sales. In the UK, online retail is expected to increase by 15.8% this year while the offline segment will grow by only 2.4%. With such a competitive retail environment it’s more important than ever that retailers look to mobile devices and the web to incentivise shoppers to make purchases online and in-store. Successful retailers will consider the internet not as a threat but as a powerful complement which can help them increase their sales.’
• Forty-six per cent of Europeans and 55 per cent of Americans now shop online. Online shopping is particularly popular in Sweden and the UK, where more than two-thirds of the population make purchases on the web; 71 per cent of Swedes and 67 per cent of Brits use the internet to shop. Online shopping is less popular in southern Europe, although it is growing: 1 in 5 people shop online in Italy (20 per cent), while one in three (32 per cent) use the internet to shop in Spain. Around half of people in France (52 per cent), Poland (51 per cent), Netherlands (49 per cent) and Germany (45 per cent) shop online.
• Phone interviews with 100 major retailers and 9,000 consumers reveal that most consumers expected to shop online at least once a month in 2014. On average, European shoppers will make 15.2 online purchases this year, with a typical basket size of £49, while American shoppers will make 15.6 online purchases, with an average spend of £71. In the UK, shoppers are expected to make 18.0 purchases online this year, spending an average of £59 each time.
• Throughout 2014, European shoppers are expected to spend £749 online, an increase of 18 per cent compared with 2013, while American shoppers are expected to spend £1,106 online, on average – 14.4 per cent more than in 2013. In the UK, shoppers are expected to spend £1,071 on the web this year – 15.8 per cent more than last year.
• Online retailers accounted for 6.3 per cent of all retail sales in Europe in 2013 and 10.6 per cent in the US, and in 2014, this share is set to grow to 7.2 per cent and 11.6 per cent, respectively.
Mobile. Internet Retailing reports: “The UK has the highest percentage of people who make a purchase every month on their smartphone (32%) out of 18 European countries, including France (8%), Germany (15%), Italy (8%) and Sweden (19%). This is the key finding from Google-commissioned TNS research, which explores the growing importance of online platforms in the consumer journey, from research to purchase. The finding comes as Google launches a new website to help brands improve their website design and accessibility across mobile platforms”.
What are the dominant media?
Clearly, it is not possible to examine all the countries of the world. Here are examples from The Marketer of five to give a flavour of their dominant media. Then, a number of general principles will be described as to what to consider before implementing a promotion. For each country a list of media should be found and the dominant media ascertained before selecting media for promotions.
BRAZIL – Online video
Of all the Latin American countries, it’s Brazil that digital marketers should watch out for. Brazil has the biggest online video audience in South America, with Brazilians watching over 4.7 billion videos in 2011. According to comScore, YouTube is the most popular platform for Brazilian online video viewers. YouTube reported that Brazil is its sixth biggest market in the world, reaching 79 per cent of the country’s internet users, and that its views from Brazilians grew 67 per cent from 2010. A survey by Forrester in 2011 showed that 86 per cent of Brazilians were reported to watch online videos, more than people in the US (80 per cent) and the UK (75 per cent). This is surprisingly high for a country where only 40 per cent of its citizens have internet access. SDL vice-president strategy and acquisitions Otto de Graaf says: “Brazil has a very strong TV-watching culture and there’s a lot of social media usage. This determines to some extent why video is very important. With the World Cup and Olympics coming up over the next couple of years, there are big opportunities for brands to get their message out.”
INDONESIA – E-commerce
The Boston Consulting Group named Indonesia “Asia’s next big opportunity” in a report released in March 2013. Its reasons are clear: Indonesia’s middle class is projected to double to 141 million consumers by 2020, with economists forecasting growth of 30 per cent over the next 5 years. The combination of a stable political climate, a strong economy and a young population – the average age is 28 – explains why Indonesia can no longer be ignored. More specifically, it has the fastest growing e-commerce market in the world. eMarketer reported in January 2013 that B2C e-commerce sales grew 21.1 per cent to $1 trillion in 2012 for the first time. This year, sales are expected to grow 18 per cent, surpassing North America to become the world’s biggest market for e-commerce sales. And with a growing middle-class, personal spending levels are rising by ten per cent per year. The amount of internet users is also expected to hit 149 million by 2015 – all the more reason for marketers to explore this lucrative market.
INDIA – Smartphone apps
The statistics on India’s mobile market look promising for potential investors. The country has mobile phone penetration of 72 per cent, with 69 per cent of phones being multimedia-capable. But what’s proving to be particularly popular is India’s domestic app market. According to professional services company Deloitte, the value of the Indian value-added services industry, which includes mobile apps, was estimated at $3.4 billion in 2011. Figures from the Asia Pacific Research Group suggest the mobile application industry in India alone is predicted to exceed $4 billion by the year 2015. There is even a store in Mumbai that sells downloadable apps off its shelves: at Mobiworld, customers with smartphones can get mobile applications downloaded onto their phone using Bluetooth and a secure SMS code. The growing Indian app market is sure to provide many opportunities for mobile marketers.
CHINA – Social media
China, which boasts more than 1.35 billion inhabitants, has gone internet crazy. The country has over 591 million internet users, representing almost half the population. The China Internet Network Information Centre disclosed in June this year that 464 million citizens accessed the net via the use of smartphones or other wireless devices. But perhaps the most revealing aspect of their web use is the enormous popularity of social media platforms. Forget Facebook – the leading social networking service is SinaWeibo, similar to a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook. It has over 600 million registered users in its database and over 60.2 million daily active users. So far, the social network seems to be doing well commercially. Weibo’s advertising revenue skyrocketed 125 per cent on last year to £27 million. De Graaf says that, unlike Westerners, China’s population is particularly accepting of brands on social media sites. “Westerners like social sharing, while on Weibo people tend to follow brands a lot more and use it as a source of information. The acceptance of brands on Weibo is much higher. Particularly with emerging economies this poses opportunities for luxury brands.”
GHANA – Mobile broadband
Business in Ghana is booming. Besides being in the world’s top 10 fastest growing economies of 2013, Ghana also boasts Africa’s highest penetration of mobile broadband. Twenty-three per cent of the population in 2011 were using mobile broadband, while fixed-broadband penetration stood at a trivial 0.3 per cent. Mobile operators invested heavily in 2009 and 2010, while internet service providers seemed unable to raise funds for new investments. For the telecom industry, this resulted in investment-to-revenue ratios of 65 per cent in Ghana, the highest in the world. Mobile phone penetration hit 100 per cent in November this year, and there is no sign of slowing down. An estimated 16 million mobile phones are used in this country of 25 million citizens, with many owning more than one SIM card. Besides Ghana, there are opportunities in other countries in the developing world. According to a report by the International Telecommunication Union, mobile broadband continued to grow at a rate of 23 per cent between 2010 and 2011. Fixed broadband isn’t doing as well – it’s only growing at a global average of 10 per cent.
BRIEF 13.1. The Havas Worldwide Survey found that ‘half of Chinese online consumers have used a mobile device to shop, while 48% of online consumers in Singapore and 42% in India have shopped online with their mobile devices’.
Types of international promotion
International promotions start with a highly successful, transferable promotion run in one country. This is how the famous Shell ‘Make Money’ promotion first travelled the world in the 1950s, long before internationally integrated marketing was an everyday topic. It is not a big step for marketing people within the company to recognise that they should meet or at least communicate with their opposite numbers in other countries in order to pass on details of their successful promotions. These promotions may then be replicated in other countries by the originating company before their competitors can do so. Relationships between these marketing people soon form to the point at which one manager discusses a potential promotion with one of his or her colleagues in another country. The usual stimulus for this discussion is money – the desire to split the origination costs with another group of people. Three things can be a particular focus of cost-saving promotion activity: the development of unique premiums; the use of character licences, such as Disney; and the exploitation of celebrity links, such as the international actors and models used for hair and beauty products. Corporate pressure for the standardisation of promotions remains powerful. This has been driven by concern about the impact of varied promotional strategies on international brand identity; doubts about whether or not all subsidiaries have an equal capability to design, implement and evaluate promotions; and the integration of retail customers on a regional basis.
The structure for managing the local/global balance in promotion has taken one of two forms. In one model, a worldwide promotions planning group is created that is responsible for all promotions throughout the world – a pattern followed by Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. In the other, an essentially country or region-based network becomes more proactive and, as a group, tries to find promotional solutions that will fit the needs of several countries. This is the pattern followed by Nestlé and a number of other leading companies. In both cases, the promotions will be planned in concept and outline in one country, allowing other countries to manage the local details within a global theme. The primary difference is not one of promotional effectiveness but of corporate culture, either where there is a strong belief in the efficacy of central control that dictates global strategy or a far more consultative belief in the value of harnessing diversity. In both circumstances, the economies of scale can be very attractive.
The three quite different forms of International promotion activity can be described in shorthand as ‘single-country’ (one country takes the lead), ‘multiple-country’ (several jointly plan for the rest) and ‘borderless’ (all participate).
The difference is very important. The approach you will have to take initially will be different in each case. After that, the details of creation and implementation will be the same.
Single-country
The process for promoting in another country is little different to that for promoting in your home country, but you do have to imagine a totally different ‘village’ to answer the question ‘Who do I want to do what?’ Crucially, you must make sure that you really know what that village is like. You need to know the people, the way they do business, their expectations and what is allowed by law and by custom, just as you do automatically at home.
Not all that long ago, an English company decided to promote its products in an Irish chain of supermarkets by offering a free draw for a tea set to be won in each store, every day for one week. By 11 o’clock on the first day, all the free-draw entry forms had been used up. The stores were so jammed with people that no business could be done until new entry forms had been delivered and the crowds dispersed. It is hard to believe, but it is true. Not a good promotion! If only the promoter had realised that consumers in Ireland were far less promotionally sophisticated than in the UK.
Another example can be found in the fashion mail-order business. An important sales opportunity is presented each year by the need to buy new clothes for growing children at the beginning of the school year in September. Thus, a form of ‘Back to school’ promotion has proved successful in every market. The promotion itself may be simple and similar in every market. What is different is the timing. In Japan and Europe, it is possible to promote in August, when parents are beginning to think of the peace and quiet that lies ahead when the children return to school. In the Middle East, families tend to stay abroad on holiday until much later and therefore the timing of the promotion needs to be as much as 2 months later, in late September to early October.
Multiple-country
If a promotion is to run across several countries, it is likely that the greater the number of countries that you include, the simpler will be your promotion. Often it will become a basic theme that may then be implemented locally using a variety of techniques. Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola are well known for their global promotional themes.
In 1996, Shell became the world’s largest distributor of die-cast model cars, selling over 26 million via its worldwide ‘Collezione’ promotion. The international objective was to reinforce Shell’s sponsorship of the Ferrari Formula One team. The model Ferrari cars were offered by the local Shell companies in any appropriate way they saw fit. Some gave them away with oil purchases and some redeemed them free on petrol sales, while others offered only a discount on the car in return for a smaller purchase of petrol. The promotional objectives were selected locally as the local situation dictated. In this type of international promotion, the global theme provides a stronger tool than any of the individual companies could afford to provide for themselves, as advantage can be taken of tremendous economies of scale.
In 1997, this promotional activity was researched in South America, the Far East and Europe, and a new range of variations on a theme was developed for 1998. You could expect to collect your Lego Ferrari toy only at your local Shell station, wherever you were in the world.
Multiple-country promotions on a regional basis are becoming increasingly possible as trading groups harmonise their laws and companies set up a single structure to market their products across a group of countries. This has long been the pattern in Northern Europe. It is also more and more the case in South-East Asia. If, as some argue, the fundamental building block of the future is regions rather than individual countries, promotion will increasingly take place on a multiple-country basis rather than either globally or nationally.
Borderless
The world is shrinking rapidly. There are now well-defined markets that cross geographical borders. While the customers may be from many different countries, they are often more similar to each other than they are to their fellow citizens. These markets will increase rapidly as the internet becomes a true marketplace. The brands to be found in international airports are already identical across the world, and hotel chains are similarly interchangeable from country to country. Loyalty is what the hotels and airlines want to promote, and they do this by a variety of frequent-flyer and frequent-visitor promotions. The key point is that the structure for truly global promotion is in place. The communication appears mainly at the point of use. Customers are more similar than different. ‘Who do I want to do what?’ can be asked and answered of frequent business travellers as a single ‘village’ across the world, and campaigns can be implemented on a truly global basis. All that needs changing is the language – and, in some cases, not even that. The Ramada duck (Case study 10) has been used worldwide.
Other well-defined cross-frontier markets are achieved by the spread of identical retail formats. Benetton and McDonald’s are two very different retail formats that are identical across frontiers and appeal in each location to fundamentally similar people. However, it remains the case that there are fewer markets that are truly global than was expected 15 years ago and that the cultural factors governing behaviour remain persistently different. Even within business-to-business markets, there are radically different approaches to the relationship between groups and individuals, the taking of personal benefits from business transactions and the use of time. The disparities are even greater in consumer markets. For these reasons, a promotion, more than any other part of the marketing mix, needs to be planned globally but implemented locally.
Retailer implementation
Tips for international trading
Law . Be aware of local laws governing distance selling (there is a limit when registering for VAT is required – VAT varies), marketing and handling personal data.
Websites. Engage professional translators for languages.
Payments . Different preferences exist (see Table 13.1 above). In Islamic countries, the charging of interest is not permitted; Sharia-compliant finance must be offered. India sees cash on delivery as the favoured payment method for many online shopping experiences. This can obviously lead to difficulties and potential losses for the retailer. Fifty-one per cent of Germans wouldn’t go back to a retailer that didn’t offer their preferred payment method.
Deliveries and returns. Find a firm with experience of distribution in the country.
Cultural differences that impact, especially for markets in the Middle East and Asia; it pays to know how a country’s culture will impact interaction with your content (Source: Joe Doveton, Director of Conversion Services at Globalmaxer).
• Colours
○ Red is lucky in China, synonymous with beauty in Russia and used for prices in France; however, if you make your prices red in the UK, consumers will tend to assume a discount is being offered.
○ Green means go in Britain but death in Brazil (something to do with the mysterious green expanse of the jungle).
○ In Japan, the word for blue is often used for colours that in English we would describe as green, such as a go traffic light. Many bantu languages don’t distinguish between green and blue; this can be anglicised as ‘grue’. It leads to descriptions of ‘leaf grue’ and ‘ocean grue’.
○ Use orange in Holland, the Dutch love it; avoid red, black and gold in Germany, as the Germans are sometimes uncomfortable with these colours.
• Website layout
○ Many Arabic scripts read right to left and are right aligned. Will this affect your site?
○ Many East Asian scripts can be written horizontally or vertically. Traditionally, Chinese, Japanese and Korean are written vertically; however some have started to be used horizontally, which makes sense for reading of a screen, rather than a paper scroll.
○ Asian readers are more comfortable scrolling down a long page.
• Calls to action
○ Skeuomorphism may have been rejected by Apple, and is slowly phasing out online in the West; Eastern web users may be more reluctant to let go.
○ In Globalmaxer’s tests, although colour can have an effect, the style and text of a button is most important to conversion rate.
• Faces
○ IKEA Saudi Arabia received criticism for airbrushing a woman from one of their catalogues. Although there are less women featured in advertising in Saudi, the market isn’t, so having familiar faces in your marketing is important.
○ Ensure that context is considered if the subject or market is sensitive.
• Copy
○ For Italians searching for low-cost flights, the most popular search term is not ‘voli economici’, the literal translation, but ‘voli low cost’. This drives a circle of OTAs having to optimise for this phrase.
○ There are examples in German, too, with work shirts being searched for with the phrase ‘business hemden’, only one word of the phrase being German.
• Technology
○ IE6 has over 24 per cent of browser share in China, so you can’t afford to ignore it.
○ Flash sometimes has problems with Arabic script.
○ In the Russian market, use big online marketplaces to introduce yourself before launching a standalone ecommerce operation.
• Context
○ Japan has a predilection for the cute (kawaii), and for the busy webpage. Germany, on the other hand, prefers simple webpages and messaging.
Localising the global
Once you have identified which of the three types of international promotion you are to implement, you will be able to set realistic and achievable objectives. As with all promotions, it is better to keep it simple, especially when it is to happen halfway around the world. When you start getting down to the details, you should follow exactly the same process as outlined elsewhere in this book. However, you must take account of the particular characteristics of culture and law that continue to differ between countries in most consumer markets. A useful trade body is Trusted Shops, who offer membership, a ‘kite mark’ and advice on online trading in other countries, including running promotions.
Laws. Every country has laws that may affect your promotion. For example, in Germany it is possible to run a competition or a sweepstake, but not a cashback offer. The rules are more subtle. If you run a competition, the answers must be easy to find on the competition form. You may then award the prize to the sender of the first correct entry received – a free draw in all but name. What’s more, you are not supposed to have the entry forms near to the promoted product. That’s the law, but it is normally flouted. Thus, to operate promotions effectively, you need not only a knowledge of the law but also that of local practice and culture. Again, if you wish to band a premium to your product in Germany, you must ensure that it is very product related and worth not more than a small percentage of the price of the main product. As a consequence, banded offers are hardly used and the consumer’s expectation is that such offers may well be useful but are of limited value. Should you introduce a banded offer that is more exciting than is allowed, then not only will you have broken the law but you will run the risk of generating an unusually high demand that could create an ‘out of stock’ situation. Check the latest information with an expert or through a website. Trusted Shops (see Further Information) provides some 25 pages of advice on legislation. A new EU Law on Consumer Rights came into force on 13 June 2014 and produced a minimum harmonisation rule. Under Rome 1 Article 6, the law of the consumer’s country of residence applies. For example, before the EU Law takes force, a contract cooling-off period in the UK is 7 days and in Germany is 14 days, but from 13 June 2014 it is 14 days for both.
Logistics and trade. There are also differences in trade expectations and in the logistics required to support promotions. If a market is experienced in promotions, the trade will be equipped to handle and implement them. If not, your best ideas may never see the light of day, owing to confusion and lack of discipline. It is surprising how many support services we take for granted when we run promotions – post offices that are reliable, retailers who will redeem coupons fairly and literate consumers. The absence of these are just a few of the things that could sink your promotion.
If you decide to supply the promoting companies with promotional items, find out about the customs regulations and the way the customs people really work. It is not unknown for items that are known to be urgent to fall into some suddenly created and highly expensive import category if they are to be released within a year. If you use local suppliers, and it is often a good idea, make sure you have a local contact capable of managing them if things go wrong.
Often cultural differences require different techniques. In some countries, people want, and expect, an immediate reward: they live for today, not tomorrow. Thus, a collector scheme is less likely to succeed than a banded or free-product offer. A free mail-in might seem attractive, but will be totally useless in most developing countries.
Differences in practices of payment for drinks affect the way in which on-trade promotions can be run. A Smirnoff promotion assumed UK practice – that people go to the bar to order their drinks and then pay for them immediately. In France, the traditional practice is to sit at a table and be waited on or, if at the bar, to remain there. It is also the practice to collect a number of receipts and pay them all when you leave. These differences in behaviour would have meant a fundamental rethink of the Smirnoff promotion.
However, different practices also create different opportunities. There are greater numbers of small, counter-service retailers in some countries than in others – the UK included. This means that promotions no longer possible in countries where the grocery trade is dominated by superstores can still be run in countries where the former situation persists. Great promotions of the past in one country can be a new opportunity in another. How can you make the most of them and avoid the other pitfalls we have discussed? The answer is to know the behaviour of your ‘village’ – both intermediaries and final consumers.
If you are promoting in a foreign country, you need allies who will act as your eyes and ears. Provided you ask the right questions, they will be able to come up with the answers. The difficult part is knowing which questions to ask. Also, whether you are promoting in a single country, promoting across a range of borders or dealing with a truly global market, the additional challenge makes promoting even more fun than on your home ground.
Data protection law
The European Commission has made assessments of the enforcement and interpretation of data protection laws throughout the EU. The Commission is keen to increase the level of protection and enforcement. A new directive is in hand. The European Parliament has endorsed the proposed regulation and directive (see http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/index_en.htm). It is advisable to adopt positive consent for the collection of personal data in all EU countries.
Case studies
The first two of the following case studies illustrate the two primary forms of international promotion – one that is borderless, because the market makes it possible to be so, and one that operates across multiple, but different, markets. The next three cases are sales promotions that ran in Singapore, Australia and Canada, but it could have been anywhere.
Case study 78 – Tony Stone Images
Tony Stone Images, used by generations of art directors, sought a solution to create brand differentiation to demonstrate that the company understands creative needs and is not just another stock photography supplier. The strategy devised by agency IMP was to associate Tony Stone Images with ‘creative visual solutions’ and to position the company as a partner rather than a supplier.
The core idea was the ‘scamp’, or scribbled drawing that ‘creatives’ use to indicate the picture they have in mind. A series of trade press ads featuring single-colour scamps, in place of the traditional full-colour photography used by competitors, extended to a range of merchandise incentives such as Post-it notes and a sweatshirt with a rough outline of a jogger helpfully arrowed ‘jogger’, a calendar for the following year showing both scamps and the photographs that matched them, one for each month. A two-night break in New York competition featured a scribbled drawing of a skyline marked ‘sunrise/sunset, wide angle skyscrapers’. Entrants were asked to identify the matching photograph in the catalogue, mark on a map where it had been taken and fax back their entries. A follow-up mailing offered a night out for two for identifying a ‘lovey dovey shot’ in the catalogue and, as a tie-breaker, completing a half-drawn scamp. These competitions meant that the catalogue was browsed and that the product therefore stood out.
The mailing was translated into French, German, Danish and Flemish. It worked internationally because creatives are creatives the world over, photography is similarly international and the creative concept had universal appeal to the target audience. This is more than an illustration of international sales promotion: it is an example of using carefully thought-out and relevant incentives to make a wacky but deeply serious point about the positioning of a company and its relationship to its customers.
How did IMP answer the question ‘Who do I want to do what?’ in this promotion?
The objectives were to extend the Umbro brand personality through promotion and to increase sales through retail chain Footlocker on a pan-European basis to the benefit of both companies. The promotion devised by IMP was to use the humorous, mickey-taking tone of voices familiar on terraces and in dressing rooms.
The core idea was to give purchasers of Umbro products an electronic swipe card that they took through a freestanding ‘tunnel’ in the shop. It would play one of two messages: ‘You came. You won. You’re walking out a winner. Claim your Euro ’96 T-shirt from the cash desk’ or ‘What grief, what pain, you haven’t won, but you can still win Euro ’96 T-shirts with your game card.’ Messages were recorded by recognisable football commentators from each country. Promotion is not yet similar internationally. In Germany, cards had to be made available to shoppers who did not make a purchase. In Italy, the promotion had to be registered with the finance ministry for tax purposes. In the Netherlands, winners would hear a cheer in the ‘tunnel’ and then had to go to the cash desk and answer a simple question before they could obtain their T-shirt. The variances are important, but so is the transferability of the core concept of tunnel, swipe card and football razzmatazz. The promotion worked for Footlocker and Umbro because the hard work had been undertaken to devise an offer that simultaneously worked across countries and adapted to their specific rules.
What dangers, if any, do you see in trying to devise retail promotions that will work in several different EU countries?
When radio station CFCW in Edmonton, Canada, was looking to boost its ratings, it approached PIMS SCA for its traffic-building Visible Vault.
CFCW Radio had a vault filled with a moneybag worth $1 million. Contestants simply had to punch in a six-digit combination in an attempt to crack the code and win the prize. Day 20 of the promotion saw a $1 million winner, as a woman punched in the correct six digits that opened the vault. Marty Stevens, Promotions Director at CFCW, notified PIMS SCA of the winner and relaxed, safe in the knowledge that PIMS SCA would pay the prize in full. The Vault is very portable, which enabled CFCW to take it to different locations, increasing awareness and visibility of the company. The bonus of having a winner provided plenty of exposure and was covered by all three major television stations and two major newspapers in the area, as well as achieving greater ratings.
Case study 81 – Boost Mobile $(Aus) 1 million prize promotion
The Apollo Marketing Group created a $1 million prize promotion for Australian mobile phone network, Boost Mobile, to increase connection to the network. The promotion was open to three categories – consumers, sales reps and traders and retailers. Four contestants were selected from each category of entries via a draw process and all 12 won a trip to Perisher Blue Ski Resort, Australia. Contestants then played a qualifying game which saw three of the 12 contestants go through to play for the $1 million prize. The final was televised live on The Today Show. Each contestant chose a prize envelope from the $1 million Wall of Money and opened it to reveal if they were a $1 million winner. Twenty-year-old Mickaylah Lewis, who turned 21 the following day, chose her envelope from the Wall of Money and opened it to find the winning message “Congratulations you’ve just Boosted yourself $1million!”. PIMS-SCA supplied the Money Bag mechanic and the 300 secure Money Bag envelopes to make up the Wall of Money and paid out the $1 million live on Australian TV.
Case study 82 – Great Singapore Duck race
PIMS-SCA were approached by TOUCH Community Services, a Singapore charity, to cover the prize on offer in their Great Singapore $1 million Duck race. The two objectives were to raise funds while increasing awareness of the charity and to create a high-profile promotion with a limited budget. Participants were invited to “adopt” a red duck by making a $10 donation to the TOUCH Services Charity. Each adopter was given an adoption certificate with a serial number. The red ducks were then randomly tagged with a number and randomly assigned to each adoption certificate. If the first duck to cross the winning line was red, the “owner” claimed the $1 million. One hundred thousand plastic ducks, including 250 red ducks, were released into the Singapore River on 12 November 2000 for the 1.5 km race. Due to the promotion’s enormous success and public popularity, the event was repeated the following year. PIMS-SCA’s role effectively increased funds and awareness for TOUCH by providing $1 million prize coverage and enabling TOUCH to run a high-profile promotion.
Summary
International sales promotion came about to achieve cost savings and ensure consistency. It differs depending on whether companies are centralised or decentralised in their structures, but the nature of sales promotion means that there are always cultural and legal factors to take into account.
Borderless promotions work where there is a single international target audience. In most cases, international promotions are multiple-country ones and vary in terms of timing and detail from country to country. Succeeding requires that close attention be paid to the behaviour and culture of each market in which you are promoting.
Self-study questions
1 What are the main types of international promotion?
2 What must you take into account in planning a promotion that is going to run in several countries?