Marketing communication: principles and practice

BOX 9.14
ADDED-VALUE CHARACTERS
The world-wide character merchandising business exceeds $100bn to retail prices.
Licensed characters can appeal to young consumers and raise awareness for the launch
of a film as well as prompt impulse purchase. For a big film, merchandising may exceed
box-office revenue. Income will be huge, but short-lived.
But think about it for a moment. A tin of 
Pokemon
baked beans tastes no different
and the tin and label are discarded as soon as its contents are removed. Why then
does this add value?
Collectibles are another matter. 
Star Wars
tie-in products that transform the
playgroup into Darth Maul, Anakin Skywalker, and soldiers of the Galactic Empire need
little explanation (at least to my 5-year-old son), and some give-aways become
collectors’ items and increase in value.
It seems that invented people can be better at selling products than real people!

---

promotion offer were in fact already loyal customers who presumably would
have bought the product anyway. Further, sales promotions do not only
impact on sales but also on brand value. As we suggested in chapter seven,
the price of a product has a lot to say about quality, value for money, prestige,
etc. We also have seen that what such factors have to say depends on who
is hearing it and in what context. Clearly, sales promotion is not simply
another promotion option – it underlies all of the marketing mix effects.
Gardener and Trevidi provide a framework that allows the marketing
communication manager to judge sales promotions activity in terms of the
effectiveness in accomplishing the various communication objectives that
may be desirable to the marketing management. Table 9.2 summarizes their
conclusions.
Sales promotions work best when all of the four levels of communication
objective are accomplished. It seems that the on-shelf coupon does this best.
Consumers receive a value-added incentive that is easy to take advantage of
without incurring costs. They do not have to clip the coupon, save it, and
take it to the store. The redemption of coupons differs markedly between
countries. North Americans redeem around 6 times as many as British
consumers, and 60 times as many as Spaniards. Managers must design
promotions that communicatively link the consumer with the value of
purchase.
A variety of sales promotions are dealt with in Boxes 9.15–9.17.