First, they construct a tentative six-month program for the store as a whole. Last year's sales promotion efforts and this year's objectives are reviewed and a suggested program is laid out.
Within the framework of that plan, once it has been approved by top management, programs are drawn up for each department individually. These may be for three-month or six-month periods, depending upon store policy.
Such planning begins about 60 days before the start of the period covered, so that the sales promotion division can anticipate each department's needs and relate them to those of others in the store. Your participation in planning at this point may be only to submit a sketchy outline of what you expect to need.
Later, as the season unfolds, detailed plans will be drawn for each month. Your merchandise manager and the sales promotion division will work up a plan for your department, as for all others in the store. You will have it about a month before the month to which it applies.
How You Plan
The planning that you yourself do for your department begins with a preliminary outline of the promotions you hope to have in the course of the season. Before drawing it up:
- Review last year's efforts, cost, and results, so far as they are available to you.
- Check on the important events of your major competitors last year. They will probably run similar ones this year. If your predecessor has not kept a file of competing advertisements, your store's sales promotion division probably has one.
- Looking ahead to the upcoming season, consider your department's goals, and the amount and kind of promotional activity you expect to need in order to achieve these goals.
- Provide for commitments already made or under consideration. These may include:
- storewide and divisional events in which you participate
- commitments to resources with whom you have program merchandising arrangements
- special needs of individual branches, such as participation in local community events
- special offerings and clearances of your nationally advertised brands, in which you will participate
- editorial credits and other forms of tie-in with consumer publications
- cooperative advertising available to you
- other helps from outside sources: tie-ins with national advertising campaigns of resources; opportunities to have speakers, shows, and demonstrations brought to the store by resources or publications; opportunities to tie in with consumer magazine promotional themes, etc.
With such information as the above, plus your merchandise budget for the upcoming period, you work out a tentative schedule of promotions for your department.
This schedule will be a guide for you and the storewide planners as to the amount, timing, and nature of promotional effort for your department.
Changes may be introduced later, to adjust to changes in supply, demand, or fashion movement. Nevertheless, you should put plenty of thoughtful, creative effort into constructing your schedule. It is going to be the framework on which your department's promotions will be built.
In retail practice, good ads may be repeated and good promotional events may be extended. But they don't come into being in the first place until a good deal of long-range planning has been invested in a department's program.
Planning the Outlay
The amount invested in a department's promotional needs usually relates to its sales goal. Management normally allots a percentage of planned sales to each department for advertising costs. The figure is set in the light of storewide considerations and the goals of the individual departments.
The actual purchase of advertising space and time is the responsibility of your store's advertising manager. You may recommend a medium to him, but the final decision about using it is his. He is necessarily expert in evaluating media and weighing costs against impact. You do need, nevertheless, to have at least a general idea of costs for your guidance in:
- making your tentative plans for the department
- evaluating offers of cooperative advertising
- estimating the cost of the advertising you will be expected to do in return for editorial and advertising credits and other tie-in opportunities.
The promotion dollar brings its biggest return to your department when it is spent at a time when the consumer is most receptive to your message.
A direct selling message has its greatest impact at periods when there is a natural peak in consumer demand-the time when you expect your peak sales.
A fashion message about new looks and new lines may have great impact early in the season, when the consumer is just beginning to purchase her wardrobe. It may also get a good reception in mid-season, if you suggest something new to give a fresh look to what she already has.
Clearances at the close of the selling season awaken interest on two counts:
- bargains, and
- final opportunity to buy for the still current wearing season.
Time your promotions of whatever type you plan according to the interests of your customers, as well as you can anticipate them.
