Resource Library

In his book, Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations, behavioral psychologist Dan Ariely details an experiment that pitted three motivators against each other. ... [ read more ]

The Bach Collection is sold through distributor showrooms and branches to builders and plumbers. This channel is extremely competitive. Distributors typically sell products from as many as twelve manufacturers and, at any given time, they may be exposed to 5-7 active promotions designed to capture their attention and time. To cut through the promotion clutter, Performance Plus Marketing recommended a high-impact sweepstakes structure for "The Sounds of Success." ... [ read more ]

Engagement doesn’t just happen, and in most organizations frontline management has a lot to do with the success - or failure - of an organization's engagement efforts. Recent research from the Gallup organization on employee disengagement ... [ read more ]

Shaw Industries stimulated excitement about its floor covering products among 30,000 independent retail sales representatives located in 10,000 showrooms through its "Win Shaw's Money $1,000,000 Sweepstakes." ... [ read more ]

MBM Corp.'s sales follow the 80/20 rule: 80% of all MBM purchases are made by 20% of the dealers that sell its line of paper shredders, cutters, and other office equipment. To motivate everyone in its network of 1,800 dealers in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, the company teamed up with USMotivation to create the "Capture Your Share" campaign. ... [ read more ]

Pick-n-Pay, a South African supermarket chain with 265 stores, opted to rebuild its corporate image, emphasizing such tenets as respect, dignity, and freedom for all individuals. ... [ read more ]

When Mohawk Industries, a $2-billion manufacturer of carpets and rugs, acquired several prestigious brands, it took considerable resources of time and money. The expansion and consolidation process inevitably affected some of the company's key residential dealers. ... [ read more ]

In addition to the company's own sales staff, the program was aimed at 14 manufacturer rep organizations, 3 major distributors, and their respective sales forces, which numbered several hundred people. The program also included almost 3,000 sales staff from computer dealers, remarketers, resellers, retailers, and catalog companies. ... [ read more ]

The "Winners' Circle" program logo and theme were designed around the popular motocross cross-country motorcycle race, and featured the No. 1 plate that is awarded to winners. Honda is a leader in production of off-road motocross bikes and a sponsor of the No. 1 team in the sport. Therefore, the logo and theme were a natural tie-in for use in printed material. ... [ read more ]

There’s amusement to be had for all at a carnival. There are spinning, flashing rides, whimsical music and, of course, icy snow cones. These things came to mind when Lynne DuVivier, president of Westport, Connecticut-based The Creative Factor, Inc. (UPIC: CREATEIT) was approached by HBO to develop a campaign for its show, Carnivàle.... [ read more ]

The program’s theme was the inspiration for a “Mexican Mosaic Bingo” game that was designed to encourage dealerships to focus on the nine-targeted initiatives. In order to qualify for one trip, dealers had to meet the targets for the three main initiatives, represented by three boxes running diagonally left to right on the bingo card. Once those targets were reached, the dealership had the option to earn another trip by meeting the targets for two other initiatives, giving them another line of bingo running horizontally, diagonally or vertically. Dealers who filled in the entire bingo card by meeting all sales targets qualified for a third trip. The 2005 Mexican Mosaic Dealer Incentive Program achieved record-setting numbers. ... [ read more ]

Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), founded in 1936, has members from more than 400 advertisers, advertising agencies, research firms, media companies, educational institutions, and international organizations. Its mission is to improve the practice of advertising, marketing, and media research in pursuit of more effective marketing and advertising communications.... [ read more ]

The American Marketing Association, one of the largest professional associations for marketers, has 38,000 members worldwide in every area of marketing. For over six decades the AMA has been the leading source for information, knowledge sharing and development in the marketing profession.... [ read more ]

This study delves into the mechanics of sales incentive programs, providing managers with useful information to design successful sales initiatives at their own companies and providing their corporate decision makers with hard evidence. It found that properly structured programs can increase sales by at least 10 percent. ... [ read more ]

This recently conducted analysis by The Incentive Research Foundation (IRF)of one company's long-standing use of travel awards as a motivational tool shows that such incentives have a clear, measurable and positive impact on corporate culture and employee performance, as well as a broader "ripple effect" on the economy of the region where an incentive travel program (ITP) is held.

Overall, the study concluded that the importance of these programs should not be undervalued; their impact and their value reach well beyond the typical event timeline. Earners of the incentive travel program are far from the only beneficiaries of the program. The sponsoring company, the destination and the suppliers all receive significant benefits as well.

This study, sponsored by the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF), looks at questioins that are rarely posed in relation to sales incentive programs: How do sales incentives affect procurement and cost of goods? Shipping? Cash flow? It suggests that developing an incentive program with a focus on sales growth alone, with no consideration for other business functions can produce 1) an adverse affect on cash flow, 2) a possible disruption in supplies, 3) extra shipping costs for ordered merchandise, and 4) a possible impact on customer quality. A "business process" approach, on the other hand, one that takes into account the impact on other business functions, "enables the planning and creation of the needed infrastructure and additional investments, where necessary, to support the results arising from the sales incentive program," the author says.... [ read more ]

A study designed to determine which aspects of selling respond to incentive travel and how that response can be measured. Researchers surveyed 1,800 subscribers of Meetings and Incentive Travel magazine and 3,000 members of the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association. To present an in-depth picture of incentive travel, and to provide a practical template for determining program ROI, the authors made a point of recording views of both the people who win the awards and those executives who allocate the money to fund them. ... [ read more ]

For the past three years, American Tire Distributors has rewarded its top dealers with an all-expenses-paid excursion to one of Alaska's premier fishing resorts…and you can bet they'll be working hard to ensure that next year they’ll earn ... [ read more ]

Few people in academia better understand the convergence of analytics and Enterprise Engagement than Charles Scherbaum, Associate Professor of Psychology at Baruch College and a member of the doctoral faculty at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Scherbaum, an early contributor to the Enterprise Engagement Alliance curriculum on analytics... [ read more ]

BigPond relies on a sales force of predominately male, tech savvy young people to sell their internet products to department and electronics stores, independent telecommunications retailers, and inbound and outbound call centers. They were challenged to motivate these GenYs to focus on their products, especially when competitors were undercutting on price. The “BigPoints” dealer incentive program, playing on the BigPond name, was developed online to build brand affinity and keep BigPond visible on the front line of selling. ... [ read more ]

BMW Financial Services had experienced 6 years of success. Its biggest challenge for 2006 was to condense its programs into a unified Web portal for its dealers, sales managers, and sales representatives. The target group of sales professionals was predominantly male, between the ages of 30 and 45, and comprised of 1,458 individuals segmented into 66 distinct profiles, who were spread over 11 urban geographic locations. By creating a unique communications tool, BMW sought to make the BMW Financial Service “10 Series” web portal a daily working tool for its entire sales force and to make sales contest information easier to access and more efficient to provide. ... [ read more ]

The Brand Activation Association has a broad focus on all the disciplines required to activate a brand's strategy, from creative strategies to measurement, on topics from omni-channel marketing to experiential marketing and social media. BAA builds on its membership knowledge base, spanning expertise in strategy through activation, and across all touch points.... [ read more ]

Promotional products foster customer goodwill (positive attitudes and feelings) toward a company and its salespeople. This study, completed by Baylor University in 1992, involved a textbook publisher sending 4,000 educators either: (1) a pocket calculator plus a letter, (2) a lower-priced highlighter pen plus a letter, or (3) a letter only.... [ read more ]

An unusual promotional mailer is used to attract client attention.... [ read more ]

In many industries and businesses, channel partners are key links between employees and customers- a weak link if they are ignored, an important source of strength if they are engaged. The stakes are high. Channel partner impact can be enormous in terms of sales volume, market share, brand reputation and “share of customer”, i.e., in engaging customers. Indeed, channel partners are often the sole link to the customer. But channel partners can also impact employee engagement, especially when they fail to deliver. Conversely, channel partner engagement is directly affected by the employees who manage them and who produce the products and services. In short, most businesses succeed only to the degree that symbiotic relationships exist between employees, customers, channel partners and vendors. This is the basis upon which “Enterprise Engagement” is built. In this paper, we focus on channel partners as a key constituent of organizational success and we offer practical strategies and tactics to engage them.... [ read more ]