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Newsletter No 8 |
29 November 2005 |
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Advertising & Marketing: Promotions Made Easy: The Case Study of El Mundo |
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El Mundo is
the second largest newspaper in Spain and is the newspaper in the
country that is growing. Pedro Iglesias, marketing director, El Mundo, Spain told conference participants some of the newspaper’s best marketing initiatives Like many newspapers, El Mundo gives away promotional items, like stamp and coin collections, to win new readers. But El Mundo
added a twist - it created a system where readers registered at sales
points to participate in the promotions, thus eliminating needless
waste. "We were sick and tired of adding something in the paper every day that we didn't even know if people wanted," says Mr Iglesias. The
promotion worked like this: As a first stage, readers were introduced
to the stamp collection with a sample of the collection in the
newspaper. This gave a clear idea of what the offer was about. Those
interested in the collection were then obliged to go to a point of sale
and fill out a form to register in order to receive special editions of
the newspaper containing the stamps. The obligation to register created
a barrier to entry to ensure that those who ended up collecting the
sets were actually really interested in the collection. Subscribers
were also offered an album to showcase the collection. All readers who
wanted the album were required to pay 1Euro. This created another
barrier to entry high enough to eliminate those who were not serious
about collecting, but not so high to be prohibitive. The
newspaper provided 30 per cent more of the stamps required to complete
the collection to ensure that collectors would end up with the whole
collection, even if they missed an issue or two of the newspaper. The
time period for the collection was also relatively short – no more than
30 to 40 days. This promotion increased overall sales of the
point of sales by 20 to 30 percent. The cost of the initiative was also
much less than if the newspaper had engaged in a ‘blind’ promotion. And
with a higher barrier to entry the newspaper knew how many people were
actually interested in participating from the very start.
El Mundo’s
second promotion was more traditional, although it distinguished itself
by offering high-end electronics, which was a departure from other
promotions it had carried out. The newspaper offered a 30 to 50 percent
discount on products like digital cameras and DVD players. The key to
this promotional strategy was the perceived value of these products,
which was very high. El Mundo realized it could work with
leading brands directly as they offered guarantees and services such as
help-lines for any technical difficulties. The promotional strategy was
mutually beneficial for both El Mundo and its partners
as it drove up both sales of the newspaper and the products, as many of
the people who bought the products would not have gone to retailers to
buy them directly.
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