The May Day Labor Day holiday is the first golden week of the new year after the Spring Festival. During this period, major merchants launch discount promotions, which is worrying. In fact, besides discounts, there are many other strategies to get consumers to buy. Simply lowering prices does not necessarily lead to good brand promotion and product sales; otherwise, many brands would not have failed in price wars. This article briefly discusses May Day product promotion plans, hoping to be helpful.

May Day Product Promotion Planning Plan

  1. Main consumer groups during May Day:
    1. Wedding consumption (wedding banquet drinks, wedding candies and nuts, bedding and kitchenware)
    2. Long-distance travel consumption (luggage, photography equipment, travel supplies)
    3. Suburban spring outing consumption (beverages, instant foods, snacks, outdoor gear, sports equipment, gardening supplies)
    4. Family seasonal change consumption (summer bedding, winter bedding storage, sunscreen cosmetics, summer appliances, clothing storage and mothproofing, rain gear, condiments)
    5. Welfare consumption (group welfare purchases of summer items)

Our promotions should always revolve around the concept: "Promotions are not just about selling what we can sell, but about selling what customers want to buy." Only when supermarket promotions cater to customers' consumption psychology can they succeed. Based on this, we should tap into supplier potential and reasonably organize corresponding promotional product groups according to the needs of the main consumer groups during May Day.

  1. Determine the promotion period:

Compared to other major festivals, May Day has a smaller consumption scale and a narrower range of product needs, so the promotion period should not be too long. We suggest 8 to 12 days. Considering that some customers travel during May Day and the time needed for information to reach customers, the promotion period should be from April 28 to May 8.

  1. Determine promotional products:

Customers' basic need is to buy products at reasonable prices, so whether the items and prices of promotional products are attractive will affect the success of the promotion. Generally, there are four types of promotional products:

  1. Seasonal products
  2. Sensitive products: Sensitive products are usually necessities with large market price fluctuations, and consumers can easily perceive price changes, such as eggs and rice. Choosing such products as promotional items, with prices slightly lower than market prices, can effectively attract more customers.
  3. Well-known products: Well-known products generally refer to products with high brand awareness, widely available, and easily substitutable. Choosing such products as promotional items often gains strong supplier support, combining store promotions with mass media publicity, such as cosmetics, health products, beverages, beer, and children's food.
  4. Special products: These mainly refer to products developed by the supermarket itself, using private labels, with no comparable products on the market. The promotion of such products should mainly reflect their uniqueness; prices should not be set too low, but attention should be paid to consistency between price and quality.

Regardless of which products are chosen as promotional items, two basic points should be remembered: first, choose products that consumers truly need; second, add practical benefits for consumers.

  1. Determine the promotion theme and main product groups:

The promotion theme is the key point that the supermarket communicates to customers and is the main tool to resonate with customers' consumption psychology. There are several mainstream May Day promotion themes. One is the low-price image appeal with the theme of rewarding customers and giving profits; the second is the new product promotion appeal with the theme of seasonal shopping; the third is the promotion appeal based on the main form of promotional activities. Turning the appeal purpose into slogans constitutes the promotion theme on promotional advertising. The fourth is the theme of long holiday leisure shopping; the fifth is the theme of spring outings and travel. For example:

  • May Day Rewards, Surprise Shopping (significant price reductions on dozens of famous and high-quality products, mainly household consumer goods)
  • Labor is Glorious, Low Prices with Gifts (significant price reductions on dozens of famous and high-quality products, mainly household consumer goods)
  • Happy Long Holiday, Low Price Mobilization (special prices on travel supplies, drinks, snacks, instant foods)
  • Cool Summer, Low Price Storm (summer bedding, summer appliances, sunscreen cosmetics, beverages)
  • Celebrate May Day Joyfully, Enjoy a Refreshing Summer (summer bedding, appliances, cosmetics, beverages)
  • May Day Fun, Shopping Wins Big Prizes (prize sales, scratch cards, etc.)
  • Shopping is Fun, Eat and Take Away (interactive games, large-scale tasting and buy-one-get-one activities)
  1. Determine promotion methods:

From a marketing perspective, promotion methods can be divided into five types: personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and corporate image promotion.

  1. Personal selling: Personal selling is a direct promotion method that achieves product sales through salespeople's oral communication and persuasion. Its characteristic is two-way communication between salespeople and customers, and its effectiveness is closely related to the salesperson's skills. For supermarkets with open-shelf sales, staff generally do not need to actively engage in personal selling, as it may affect customers' independent selection. However, staff must provide necessary help and guidance and appropriately engage in friendly conversations with customers, meaning that staff should achieve promotional goals through service and communication.

  2. Advertising promotion: Advertising promotion uses various advertising media to convey consumption information to consumers to promote sales. Its characteristic is one-way communication from the enterprise to consumers, so it is called a "pull" strategy. Advertising media include: TV, radio, newspapers, magazines; signs; billboards; roadside boards; posters; transportation; lighting; window displays; packaging; in-store POP; oral publicity or in-store broadcasts; demonstrations; visual walls; computer networks; red banners; flyers; posters; DM, etc.

Larger chain supermarkets may consider using the four major advertising media, but for smaller chain supermarkets, the most commonly used media are: flyers, signs, billboards, lighting, posters, red banners, etc. Divided by promotion theme:

  1. Opening promotions commonly use: newspapers, flyers, radio, transportation, outdoor red banners, posters, POP, in-store broadcasts, press releases.

  2. Anniversary promotions commonly use: newspapers, flyers, DM, posters, red banners, POP, in-store broadcasts.

  3. Routine promotions commonly use: flyers, DM, posters, red banners, in-store broadcasts.

  4. Competitive promotions use the same media as routine promotions.

  5. Sales promotion, also known as business promotion, is a supplementary and temporary promotion method that directly uses benefits to stimulate consumer demand.

Its characteristic is quick results, but improper use can have negative effects, making customers doubt the quality and price authenticity of products and lowering the product's prestige.

  1. Determine the forms of promotional activities:

  2. Buy and give (spend a certain amount in one order to receive a gift)

  3. Interactive prize games (spend a certain amount in one order to participate in games, high scores win big prizes) (e.g., jump rope, three-legged race, fishing game)

  4. Scratch cards (spend a certain amount in one order to get a card, scratch to redeem prizes)

  5. On-site tasting and trial (ask manufacturers to provide more)

  6. Performances (invite performance teams to create atmosphere)

  7. Kids in charge

May Day is a festival that many merchants value highly. It is a three-day national holiday, very conducive to product promotion. Merchants must not miss this festival and must seize the opportunity to quickly launch a communication offensive during May Day to achieve both product sales and brand communication.

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