On pack promotional coding through variable printing

1. Promotional Coding for Brand Engagement & Loyalty
By Darragh Reynolds
19, August 2015.
What have Coke Cola and a selfie stick got in common? Probably this year’s best use of on-
pack promotional coding. This summer, the iconic brand invited consumers to buy a Coke,
simply enter the promotional code on the inside of the bottle sleeve into a website and be in
with a chance of winning one of 250,000 selfie sticks (that’s a lot of selfie sticks).
Over the past decade there has been an explosion in the use of variable data printed directly
onto product packaging, particularly in the food and drink sectors. Usually the variable data
relates to dates of minimum durability and batch numbering for traceability. Today the printing
of variable data for the purpose of on-pack promotional coding has become mainstream for
FMCG brands as an effective sales promotion technique. This year alone we have seen
brands like Pringles (Karaoke Kits), and Lucozade (Project Yes), many more are no strangers
to promotional coding. Advancements in technology has now made this technique available
to all smaller and medium sized brands.

2. What are promotional codes?

3. Promotional codes can take many forms. They might be a QR code that directs customers to
a specific website. Or they could take the form of an alphanumeric code – unique to each pack
– that allows customers to win prizes. They are applied onto product packaging and are easy
to identify.
Reasons to use on-pack promotions:
On-pack promotions can help brands realise the following benefits -
 Stand out from the crowd
The food and beverage industries are fiercely competitive. Promotional codes help
your brand to stand out on the shelf and entice customers to purchase your product.
[Tweet this]. They are a highly effective way of engaging customers with innovative
marketing campaigns and can act as the bridge between physical marketing and online
strategies.
 Engage with your customers
Marketing is about engaging your customers. And promotional codes give you a great
vehicle for encouraging customers to take action. Whether you are inviting consumers
to design their own packaging or offering them the chance to win prizes, it all helps to
make your brand more memorable.
 Build brand loyalty
Active brand engagement leads to strong brand loyalty. The godfather of brand
management Kevin Lane Keller states that perhaps the strongest affirmation of brand
loyalty occurs when customers are willing to invest time, energy, money and other
resources into the brand beyond those expended during purchase or consumption of
the brand. These days consumers are willing to talk about the brands they love, mostly
without the use of a promotion and competition. So when brands engage with
consumers with a promotion they can only benefit further from this trend. This in turn
also drives traffic, mentions, connections and follows.
 Capture your customers’ data
When you engage your customers, you encourage brand loyalty. Run a campaign that
captures an email address and gains permission for further communication then you
have a fantastic opportunity to make the relationship between you and your consumer
even stronger.

4.  Increase revenue
On-pack promotions are an excellent way to grow quick sales and market share for
the duration of the campaign. Does that mean that after the campaign is over sales
decrease? Perhaps or maybe not. Increased loyalty from the promotions can cause
additional revenue to carry on beyond the short term and into the medium and long
term.
Top 5 tips for successful on-pack promotions:
1. Make it interesting/fun for your customers (not just for you).
2. Pick a prize that reflects your brand & target audience.
3. Take in to account customer effort versus perceived value of reward.
4. Make it fair and robust.
5. It’s all in follow up.
How do you add promotional codes to food and drink packaging?
With the right choice of equipment.
It’s important not to underestimate the engineering challenge of adding promotional codes to
packaging. They must be printed with 100% clarity – at speed – and must not conflict with
essential traceability codes and best before information.
In the case of competition codes that are unique to each customer and each individual product,
you also need a system that is capable of generating hundreds of thousands – possibly
millions – of different codes within a short space of time. For example, an 8 character code
has 4,294,967,296 unique possible outcomes.
Then there’s the matter of whether you print the promotional codes directly onto the packaging
on the production line, or add the codes later in the production process. There are a small
number of companies that can generate the unique codes for you to print. Some of these
companies also look after the back end of the promotion to insure the website can handle the
promotional entries and issue win/lose responses. Check out Digitizrz.com who can oversee
all aspects of your loyalty programme.
The right decision depends on your industry, the type of promotion you want to run and your
manufacturing processes. Find out more at Codico-distributors.com
Codico are Ireland’s largest provider of variable data printing solutions for the manufacturing
and printing industries.