Sales Promotions for Aeropostale

Aeropostale is a teen clothing company based in the US. The firm filed for bankruptcy protection due to constant losses. Lack of enough profits makes its operations in parts of the US and the entire Canada unsustainable. For that reason, company is closing down most of its stores. Aeropostale succumbed to competition from new and aggressive competitors such as Forever21 and H&M due to its failure to embrace change and adopt new methods of operations. As a result, it eventually lost its loyal customers to the competitors. This essay seeks to develop three sales promotion campaigns that will turn the company from a loss to a profit making entity.

Sales Promotion Ideas

The ideas that can help revamp the business back to profitability are outlined in the table below.

Sales Promotion Examples

Target Customer

Desired Results

Vouchers and Coupons

Competitor’s and loyal customers (the primary focus is to reward the existing customers so that they continue purchasing company products and luring and retaining competitor’s end-users into purchasing the same goods)

The idea is designed to increase customer consumption. Typically, vouchers and coupons have codes whose purpose is to ascertain the rate of response to sales promotion program. Hughes & Fill (2007) connote that they aid the company in selecting the right media, sales promotion activity and the frequently used store outlet. Thus, the company will be in a position to run the profitable point of sales and this will enhance profitability

Discounted prices

Competitor’s, loyal, brand switchers and price customers

(All customers are eligible for discounted prices. The primary purpose is to attract and retain potential customers. It also goes along with rewarding the loyal consumer.)

According to Lamb, Hair & McDaniel (2018) and Yeshin (2006), money is the most powerful purchase tool that can be offered to a consumer. It can easily change the consumer’s purchase decision. At this point, the company needs to be creative and innovative to succeed with this particular strategy. This calls for the design of new cloth lines that match the needs and preferences of their respective consumers, then using the discounted promotional strategy to market the products to the end-user. As a result, the firm will retain a large customer base. 

Buy-one-get-one-free promotion

All customers (the promotional strategy persuades buyers to buy the brand more often and switch to it permanently)

According to Egan (2007), the “buy-one-get-one-free promotional” strategy attracts more than 95% of consumers. Gbadamosi (2016) asserts that it is the best strategy for ”brand switching, spending more and purchase acceleration.” The strategy positively influences the behavior of customers and is designed to increase the overall sales and revenues of the organization. Thus, Aeropostale can employ this particular promotional idea in increasing the traffic to its stores.

Conclusion

The essay focused on developing sales promotional ideas for Aeropostale, which has recorded continuous losses for several years. The buy-one-get-one-free promotion, discounted prices, and the use of vouchers and coupons are the three primary strategies that shall augment the firm’s overall revenues, profitability, and market share. Furthermore, the company needs to embrace intensive social media marketing for the strategies to work effectively. Young people get information via the social networks; therefore, Aeropostale will be highly advantaged by engaging with the segment through the social platforms, since it will be in a position to run successful promotions and sell the same products thru the medium.

References

Egan, J. (2007). Marketing communications. London United States: Thomson.

Gbadamosi, A. (2016). Handbook of research on consumerism and buying behavior in developing nations. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference.

Hughes, G. & Fill, C. (2007). Marketing communications 2007-2008. Amsterdam Boston: Elsevier.

Lamb, C., Hair, J. & McDaniel, C. (2018). MKTG 11. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Yeshin, T. (2006). Sales promotion. Australia London: Thomson Learning.