Promotions and Planning

A task force has been put together to help make lives easier.

Here is what we did.

If you are working in promotion planning within your company, you likely have a lot of on your plate, especially if your company is an extremely large company, with multiple business units/products and a complex sales channel.

You likely work with your category leader, who is responsible for sales across numerous channels, stores, and colleagues, all of whom are responsible many brands at play in large customers like Safeway or Target.

Now, promotion planning, from a consumer perspective is a thankless job, but it is key. It makes peoples days and drives product sales.

I remember as a kid, the “buy one, get one free” sign in the candy aisle was the equivalent of the golden arches of McDonald’s — it was very exciting. I knew I didn’t have to share my candy with brother, who, like the little bumpkin he is, likes to save and horde away his candy bar, while I eat mine in a few healthy, red-blooded American bites.

I wouldn’t have understood then, but if I knew what it took to make “buy one, get on free” and had the mental bandwidth to realize just how much work goes into something that seemed so simple, I would have had a greater appreciation, at the time, and who knows, I may be working on Madison Avenue as we speak.

I suppose that is why people get into various spheres of business, don’t they? Often, you see something as a kid and love…