Thursday, January 31, 2008

Promote promote promote!


How do you get something noticed? How do you inform the public about a certain product or service? How do you move up in this world?! The answers are promotions, promotions, and promotions! In order to successfully spread the world about a certain product, event or project, you need to creatively catch the publics eye. Oftentimes, this is not an easy thing to do. In the marketing world, promotions are a helpful tool in reaching consumers. Promotions can be anything from a huge kickoff event in Times Square to a free key chain at a baseball game. Practically every business uses promotions in their own unique way and the following article takes a look at a familiar bunny and his day.

According to Bagwell Promotions it is never to early to start preparing for a holiday. In the PR-USA.net article, Planning Easter Promotions Early Pays Off, Bagwell feels that since the Easter holiday is earlier this year--March 23-- businesses should get the ball rolling now. Their website, www.bagwellpromotions.com, has already proven to be successful in offering promotional items all year round. They wanted to expand on holiday promotions beyond the most popular, Christmas, but to use Easter as well to reach out to new customers, generate traffic, and perhaps even revenue. Starting in January, Bagwell began generating sales for their Giant Easter Bunny and they even began to pick up sales for other items as well.

John Bagwell, President of Bagwell Promotions advises business that start early for promotions to make sure that all tools necessary for the promotion are included. Bagwell even goes as far to include entry blanks to document contact information of the participants, a registration box, colorful posters to promote the contest and a press release packet. They have been so successful with their Easter sales that a new website has been created exclusively for their Easter promotions. Many items that are available can be imprinted with a logo, company name or message for individualized promotions.

The truth is that promotions are everywhere. Promotions are a key aspect of creating any marketing plan and serve a very important role in the success of a company or product. There are countless opportunities to suit any need in promotions. They can be used all year to engage perspective customers, keep existing customers, or to support a specific cause or event. I mean, come on! Who doesn't like free pens?!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Well hello there!


Hello, my name is Brittany and this is my blog on coupons, promotions, and contests. Throughout the course of the next ten weeks I will take a look at these topics and comment on them. I hope to bring you interesting information and fun links so perhaps you might save some money, get some free stuff, or win some cool prizes. ( Sorry, no guarantees though :) )
Coupons have been a huge part of my life since before I was even born. My mom, Kathy or Coupon Kathy as her friends refer to her as, is a huge coupon clipper. Every week she goes through the Sunday paper and clips coupons for everything from shampoo and health products, to dog food and local restaurants. I used to be annoyed when a short trip to the grocery store would turn into a coupon search for every item we purchased. But now, I realize that I definitely did not give my mother enough credit. Coupon savings is an art form. If done properly it can save you more money than you ever imagined. While searching to see how others felt about coupon saving, I found that my mother was not alone.
A recent article titled Satisfy Your Need to Save Money, highlights a new online coupon source, www.redplum.com. The article attempts to show people that coupon clipping does not have to be as time consuming as it seems. Twenty short minutes is all you need to take advantage of weekly offers that could save you a significant amount of money. What makes redplum so special is that is it interactive and fun for consumers to 'play' with. It draws attention by consumers because it makes the chore of finding and clipping coupons a fun and entertaining experience. The site is also very organized and easy to navigate for those who may be less tech savvy. Some other features of this site include video clips, a recommendation engine, special featured values, and a way to save coupons and continue browsing (sort of like a 'cart' option).
Redplum is ever-changing and growing with the times. On their site they have a space for new additions coming to the site. This includes a grocery list maker, automatic coupon matching to your lists, and weekly local deals in your particular neighborhood. With these great features I predict that even more people will be turned onto the idea of saving money by using coupons. After all, according to the article, spending twenty minutes a week clipping coupons could save you over $2,000 per year. Now thats a lot of dollar menu items.

Stay tunned, next time we investigate promotions!