How Promotional Compliance Can Impact Brand Reputation | Dee Set

If you're a retailer working within the FMCG industry, you'll know exactly how important promotional compliance is. It's the key to ensuring every offer is a success, allowing you to monitor your in-store promotions and action high-level interventions as and when they're needed. 

However, the opposite is also true. Failing to manage your offers and promotion advertising can lead to the failure of your brand, pushing your customers away and into the arms of your rivals.

It's a tricky balance to manage, which is where Dee Set comes in. We're here to show you how promotion compliance can be a boon to your business, boosting your reputation and increasing sales across the board.

Want to find out how we can help? Let's chat.

Decoding promotional compliance: What is it?

Promotional compliance isn't just another hurdle to tackle - it's the fine art of combining innovation and regulation, ensuring your promotional activities go off without a hitch. In a world where merchandising can make or break a brand, understanding what promotional compliance entails and how it can boost your reputation is key to creating a field marketing campaign that dazzles.

Essentially, promotional compliance is your guide to keeping your marketing activities and promotions running smoothly across all of your stores. Not only does this approach help you to keep on top of the law, but it can also have a major impact on your business as a whole.

If you manage several stores and want to instigate the same promotional materials across each space, you need to ensure your marketing activities are implemented effectively. Not only does this approach help to improve the customer experience and increase sales, but it can also have a large effect on your reputation.

The crucial link between brand reputation and promotional compliance

As a retailer, your reputation is the lifeblood of your business. A sterling reputation breeds customer loyalty, meaning a steady stream of returning traffic for the long haul. However, a negative perception can redirect crucial traffic straight into the arms of your competitors.

Now, of course, your reputation hinges on a variety of factors, so it isn't all down to promotional compliance. However, it is a key part of your marketing efforts, having a major impact on the way your brand is perceived.

Promotion compliance can be the make or break factor for your reputation - let’s find out how…

Promotional compliance: A blueprint for building trust

Trust-building is an important factor for any modern retailer in the digital age. You need to make sure that your customers keep coming back for more, despite the rise of online shopping. 

Did you know… Statistics show that 71% of customers are more likely to buy items from brands they trust? That means it's never been more important to jump on the loyalty bandwagon.

There are many different ways in which you can build trust. However, prioritising compliance across your promotional advertising remains fundamental.

When your brand consistently adheres to promotion compliance standards, it sends a powerful message to your audience of trustworthiness and reliability. Promotional compliance ensures that your marketing activities align with established norms and regulations across all your stores, meaning your customers are never left feeling confused.

You also need to make sure that your promotional materials are evenly distributed across your outlets. If you're advertising a particular offer and your shoppers find that this promotion isn't available at the stores they frequent, you're likely to reduce their trust and loyalty. Not only does this approach make regular shoppers feel like they've been unfairly disadvantaged, but it also means they're likely to shop elsewhere, reducing both traffic and sales. 

Our field marketing teams can work directly with your store managers to undergo promotional reviews, using the latest EPOS and image recognition data. Real-time insights into the performance of your offers can be unlocked with ease, working out which stores are performing well and which ones are falling by the wayside. Once the results have been assessed, we can send our team of experts into the field to audit and improve your promotions, ensuring every offer is a win.

By making sure your promotional advertising is equal across all your stores, you boost compliance, build trust, and enhance the success of your marketing investments - all at the same time.

Weaving brand values into promotional strategies

Another important aspect of promotional compliance is that it enables your offers to comply with your values and mission. When promotions reflect a retailer's commitment to its core principles, it improves the overall public perception of the brand, reinforcing its identity in the minds of your customers. 

We can back this up with statistics too - a study by Edelman found:

• 80% of people will invest in a brand/retailer due to their values and beliefs. 
• 58% of people will buy or advocate for a company if their beliefs and values align. 

Compliance isn't just about checking boxes though - it's an opportunity to showcase your commitment to your brand values. With so many different shopping options available in the digital age, it's never been more important to make yourself stand out from the crowd, and this is how you do it.

Crafting promotions and using marketing channels that align with your core values not only ensures adherence across the board, but also strengthens your brand's identity. As we can see in the statistics above, consumers are much more likely to engage with promotions that resonate with their values, creating a positive association with the brand.

Many retailers are now jumping on the green bandwagon, moving their businesses towards a more environmentally friendly ethos. If you want to position yourself as an ethical retailer, for example, you could consider making a policy that all the marketing materials used for your promotions and marketing activities are made from sustainable materials. 

By ensuring your promotional materials and marketing activities are compliant with your brand values and ethos, you can boost your reputation, make your business stand apart, and help to introduce positive change.

Strengthen your brand’s identity in real time

As a retailer, your brand identity isn’t just a label - it’s the golden ticket to triumph. Consistency is the very heartbeat of a strong brand identity.

Whether you're unveiling a new sustainable ethos, debuting a new product, creating a new field marketing campaign, or orchestrating a seasonal extravaganza, your identity should take centre stage in your promotional campaigns. Your promotions help to curate a recognisable brand image - one that shoppers will recognise no matter where they encounter your brand, be it online, on billboards, in conversation - the list goes on.

Consider a retail giant like Tesco, where Clubcard offers and the iconic 'Every little helps' slogan are the heartbeat of their brand. These promotions aren't just incidental; they're strategically etched into the DNA of Tesco's identity, reverberating across every supermarket aisle in the United Kingdom. Now, imagine a parallel universe where Tesco tosses promotional compliance to the wind by reducing Clubcard offers to select stores, with slogans forgotten on half of their promotional materials. 

The result? Chaos, confusion, and customers turning to rival supermarkets, as well as a massive reduction in ROI.

If you want to ensure your promotions fit your brand's narrative, any compliance issues need to be nipped in the bud, presenting a strong front to your customers. As well as boosting your reputation, you'll also increase loyalty, trust, and customer retention, which will undoubtedly lead to more traffic and sales.

By conducting ample promotional reviews with Dee Set's help, you can ensure your brand identity stays strong for years to come. Whether you have a particular slogan or logo you use in your marketing materials, or you're known for a particular type of promotional offer, our field marketing teams can work with you to make sure your brand's reputation never suffers. We'll create a cohesive and recognisable brand identity that resonates with your customers, ensuring consumers always know what to expect from your stores.

Sealing success: The lasting echo of promotional compliance

When building your business, the art of promotion advertising emerges as an unsung hero. One thing remains crystal clear – promotional compliance isn't just a set of rules, it's the golden ticket to your success.

It’s all possible through our powerful suite of technology solutions, created directly with retailers in mind.

Your story is still ongoing, and promotional compliance is the ink that writes its most compelling chapters. From elevating customer trust to building a strong brand identity, our services enable retailers across the UK to bolster their brand reputation, one step at a time.

Sounds pretty good, right? Contact our expert team and we’ll get the process started.