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Money Isn’t Everything
Whereas cash used to be king, it has been
dethroned as the reward of choice by savvy
marketers. Why? As one top salesperson for a
pharmaceutical company told me, “when I used to get
cash for hitting my sales numbers, I’d spend it
paying bills; let’s face it, once it’s gone it’s
gone.”
Here’s a tip from another supplier of awards:
when you want to give a recognition award, you
identify that person or group, acknowledge them and
give them something to commemorate the achievement;
when giving an incentive item, you’ll want to rouse
and motivate a person or group to elicit a better
performance.
Recognition signifies that someone notices and
cares. It satisfies a person’s essential needs and
leads to new motivation, improved performance and
higher self-esteem. By giving recipients tangible,
memorable, upscale items, not only are you
acknowledging their accomplishments, but your
thoughtfulness is a constant reminder to them every
time they look at or use their prized possession.
The awards and incentive market, currently with
estimated sales well over $20 billion, is growing
because it continues to perform where other forms of
motivation (the aforementioned cash) don’t. Whether
they’re used as sales incentives, safety incentives,
business gifts to thank clients, or performance
programs to acknowledge employees who excel, awards
and incentives don’t fail.
Take A Page From Their Book
But don’t take my word for it, consider these
examples:
* When wearables retailer Tommy Hilfiger wanted
to generate consumer excitement and drive store
traffic and sales for the back-to-school season a
few years back, the company’s “Boys/Kids” division
teamed with Nintendo of America for an integrated
promotion targeting 8-to-20 year olds. Nintendo
agreed to the partnership in an effort to boost
brand awareness in this key demographic area.
The companies used customized, imprinted sports
merchandise and travel as incentives and jointly
financed the campaign. Nintendo included the Tommy
Hilfiger logo into a snowboarding game and Hilfiger
created a line of Tommy Nintendo sports products,
including sweatshirts, jackets and T-shirts.
Permanent interactive Nintendo displays were placed
in Tommy Hilfiger sections in leading department
stores allowing consumer to try out Nintendo games.
A “hacky sack” fanny pack was offered as a gift with
purchases of $50 or more, as well as a rebate on
Nintendo games. Additionally, the program included
point-of-purchase materials and an in-store
sweepstakes offering vacations and high-end
imprinted sports equipments, like snowboards and
apparel.
The results speak for themselves: Hilfiger’s
sales exceeded projections by 64% and were almost
double that of the same period the year before and
Nintendo saw 3 million consumers sample their
in-store games, 5% of the game rebates were redeemed
(a record for the company) and over 30,000
sweepstakes entries were received.
* When market research showed the U.S. Postal
Service that consumer interest in stamp collecting
was significantly declining, they contacted their
promotional consultant and designed a campaign to
reignite interest in the hobby and position
themselves as an important educational and cultural
organization. Of course, they also wanted to
increase the sale of stamps and create potential new
revenue streams for overseas partners.
The USPS ran a contest, the theme of which
encouraged children to express their dreams, hopes
and views of the future through illustrations, and
was designed specifically to be rolled out to postal
administrations throughout the world to encourage
international contests. Kids entered by submitting
designs for a new stamp and the USPS promised to run
the winner’s design on a commemorative stamp. It
used trips, computers and imprinted computer
accessories as incentives.
The U.S. contest was executed through colorful
promotional pieces written in language
understandable to kids that were displayed in post
offices and mailed to participating classrooms. The
postal service, through its relationship with
educators, was able to maintain ongoing
communication with participating classrooms to
encourage involvement.
Promotional materials prominently featured the
various incentive and promotional items as the
rewards.
The USPS campaign delivered big time when it
exceeded goals by a considerable margin, with more
than 120,000 American children participating in the
U.S. program and over 30 countries signing up for
their own local versions of the promotion. Over half
of U.S. participation came from classroom activities
and the USPS saw children, for the first time in a
while, give stamp collecting their seal of approval.
The Envelope Please…
As these two examples show, incentives work and work
well. But awards, too, hold a special place in
everyone’s heart. Though winning an Oscar™ is an
honor reserved only for those in the movie industry,
the company that makes the golden statues has a long
history doing awards for the promotional products
industry, and a large portion of its business comes
from the high-end imprinted and engraved recognition
items they craft. They are just one of the many
companies represented in the showcase of awards and
incentives items that follow.
When it comes to employees, recognition shouldn’t
be just for those who perform well; it also sends a
message to other employees about the type of
performance that gets noticed at a company.
Recognition creates role models and communicates the
standards of the kinds of accomplishments that
constitute an award-winning performance. By
lavishing attention and accolades on your best
clients and employees, you’ll be treating them like
the stars they are – and who wouldn’t love that? |
