Many Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) manufacturers today use unique codes to promote their brands and gain insights into their customers.
This typically involves printing a Unique Random Character (URC*) code onto each and every pack, and encouraging the customer to register on a website and input the code.
For example, in a typical prize promotion run by a snack manufacturer, each promotional pack will be printed with a unique code. To see if they’ve won a prize, customers go the promotion website, submit some details about themselves and enter the code from their promo pack.
There are many benefits of using unique codes – to the brand, their customers and also the retailers who stock the brand. Here are the top eight benefits of unique promotional coding:
- Customer engagement – lets the brand engage with individual customers, with the view to understanding them better and introducing them to the brand’s other products.
- Demographic data – gives the brand valuable marketing information on their customers’ spending habits.
- Proof of purchase – provides proof of purchase to the customer without them having to post in a piece of packaging.
- Promotional programmes – gives the customer the opportunity to win a prize. The ‘Win a Taste of Luxury’ promotion is a good example of this.
- Loyalty programmes – gives the customer the opportunity to be rewarded for their on-going purchases.
- Feedback on new products – lets the brand gauge the popularity of new products being released onto the market. That’s the thinking behind recent promotions where customers are encouraged to try and then report on new flavours.
- Digital footfall – increases the traffic to the brand’s website.
- Retailer support – brands often share the marketing information they gather with retailers, to drive extra sales in popular areas and increase low sales in unpopular ones.
It’s in these ways that brands use unique codes to grow their business, by increasing customer engagement and loyalty.
Here at RivTec, we’re experts in the on-site management of unique codes.
We supply many leading brands with the equipment that generates the unique codes for their promo packs. Our equipment can generate any number of codes and will never output the same one twice. That’s very important, obviously, as you don’t want two people – or more – to get the same code.
To find out more about unique codes and how they can help you, call +353 (0)42 937 4160 or email info@rivtec.ie
* Note that there’s a difference between a ‘Unique Promotional Code’ and a ‘Universal Product Code’, which both use the ‘UPC’ acronym.A
‘Unique Promotional Code’ is a one-off code applied to a single pack – e.g. a single promotional 40g pack of Brand X Salt and Vinegar crisps.
A ‘Universal Product Code’ is a barcode that’s used to identify a particular product – for example, 40g packs of Brand X Salt and Vinegar crisps. So all these packs will have the same ‘Universal Product Code’, whereas each individual pack will have its own ‘Unique Promotional Code’.
Tied in with this, some brands are tempted to use non-unique codes (such as the ‘Universal Product Code’ or other traceability data that doesn’t change) for their promotional campaigns. This is not a good idea because a customer only has to buy one pack to enter the promotional campaign many times. In fact, they don’t even need to buy a pack as they can get the non-unique code on social media.
So using a non-unique code will give the brand no insight into customer behaviour or spending habits, as they don’t need to buy / repeat-buy the product to get rewarded.