Other Ideas for Promotion

    Advertising the brand is not only relegated to print ads and television spots. Marketing the products is also crucial in making a brand successful. “Very few products, services, or groups are unique; most are parity products, that is, they offer qualities and functions similar or identical to those of their competitors. Branding and advertising differentiates these parity products, services, and groups in a crowded marketplace.”(Landa, R. (2010). Advertising By Design: Generating and Designing Creative Ideas Across Media. Page 33.) I would aim to make Dr. Scholl’s For Her an even stronger brand by staging promotional events in select nightclubs nationally. The events would run concurrently with the unveiling of the billboards also in these markets: Las Vegas, Miami, San Diego, and New York. Marketing in these areas are useful because there are many visitors globally who specifically spend their days and nights constantly on their feet. “Finding a relevant insight into how people think, what they need or desire, and how they act, termed a consumer insight, is paramount for idea generation. That consumer insight should be coupled with an insight into the brand, according to Lisa Fortini-Campbell, advertising expert and professor in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, Chicago. In her book, Hitting the Sweet Spot: How Consumer Insights Can Inspire Better Marketing and Advertising (2001), Fortini-Campbell argues that by combining consumer and brand insight, one can attain an advertising “sweet spot”—the most effective place to hit the audience with your marketing messages.” (Landa, R. (2010). Advertising By Design: Generating and Designing Creative Ideas Across Media. Page 68.) That insight becomes a power tool for any brand and advertising agency.

     I would start the promotional event by placing brand representatives in the crowds of the hottest nightclubs frequented by fashionable, savvy, attractive locals and tourists. I would have our brand reps wearing high heels, and of course the Dr. Scholl’s For Her shoe inserts, passing out our products to women in the crowd. They would have printed on them a cute slogan on them like, “After the club don’t take off your fabulous heels. CAUSE A SENSATION. NOT A COMMOTION. Dr. Scholl’s For Her.” Most clubs are dark and noisy so not much interaction might be had between the brand reps and the audience; however, when they wake up next morning and realize their feet do not hurt from the night before, they will look in their heels and realize our product saved the day. This tactic could be integral to creating the idea of a “raving fan”. They are people who become loyal to the brand and tell everyone they know about it. They get on the social media sites and blog about it. By creating these events perhaps every 6 months, we could create a direct correlation between Dr. Scholl’s For Her products and dancing on cloud 9 the entire night.