Page 111 - 100 Great Marketing Ideas (100 Great Ideas)

A few years ago, PepsiCo spotted an opportunity. It became
fashionable for teenagers to carry pagers (electronic messaging
devices), so PepsiCo hit on the idea of running a sales promotion in
which teenagers could buy a pager for a heavily discounted price if
they sent ten Mountain Dew bottle tops in to the company.

The promotion was a great success in increasing sales of Mountain
Dew, but more importantly it put PepsiCo in the position of having
millions of members of their target audience walking around
carrying a dedicated communication device. PepsiCo were able to
send out promotional messages to the entire group at the touch of a
button—giving them instant access to the exact people they needed
to contact, at minimal cost.

The cost of the pagers was not much more than the $20 the
customers paid for them: this is a self-liquidating sales promotion,
because the promotion pays for itself—a great idea in itself!

In practice

• Self-liquidating promotions require you to find something that

people want to buy, and that carries a high profit margin—
otherwise it is not possible to offer a big enough discount to be
attractive, but still cover the costs.

• Communication devices are not necessarily electronic—free

magazines or newspapers would work just as well.

• Try to ensure that the communication device is valuable in itself

to your target audience.

• Do not overuse the medium—you don’t want people to throw

the device away or leave it switched off most of the time.

102 • 100 GREAT MARKETING IDEAS