Sunday 25 November 2007

Innocent Promotion



Innocent Promotion, originally uploaded by EUFO Views.

A three-way marketing promotion, linking Sainsbury (the supermarket chain), Innocent (the smoothie manufacturer), and Age Concern (a charity for the relief of poverty in the elderly).

This can be a useful device to create brand loyalty amongst consumers. For example, smoothie buyers tend to be young and affluent - just the demographic that Sainsbury needs to attract as a company.

The young also tend to give more to charity, so a link to a widely known charity is a positive affiliation. 'Fuel poverty' (where fuel costs absorb more than 10% of houshold income) is an issue that is increasing in profile in the UK that disproportionately affects the elderly. The little wooly hat on top of the bottle is just that - a marketing device to act as the cherry on the cake that consolidates the loyalty to the project by reminding us of outr grandmothers.

However, what happens of things go wrong? For example, if there were to be a scandal about Trustees expenses at Age Concern. Or if the smoothie ingredients were found to be 'impure'. The carefully constructed affiliation would collapse and sales may well plummet.

Perhaps affiliative marketing is a high risk strategy? If things go well, sales can be well in excess of what they otherwise would have been. If things don't go well, then the investment in the brand and its affiliations may not be recouped.

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