Sunday 30 November 2014

Trader’s Giveaway – Cash or Vouchers?

Lucky winners of the Trader’s Cash Giveaway promotion receive their $500 in the form of $250 cash and $250 in QVM vouchers. A number of traders are asking why not give the whole $500 in vouchers so we can be sure the money comes back to traders.

This is a fair question but the proponents of the current split believe a quick bit of financial/marketing analysis will suggest that the cash component will give us a better return. Yes, by giving cash, there is the danger that the funds will be spent elsewhere. But the cash component certainly makes the promotion more attractive to customers, and this promotion is all about getting more people to our market.

Cash is just so much more liquid and who could blame customers for wanting to spend some of their winnings outside the market. By making the promotion more attractive we hope more people will hear about the cash giveaway and come along to do their shopping. They may hear about it from their friends, radio advertising, or any of the promotional mediums being used by QVM.

Some years ago a market research program concluded that the average spend at QVM was $100 per customer. If we attract an extra 500 customers to our market each day of the promotion and they only spend a conservative $20 each we are putting an extra $10,000 into traders tills.  That compares favourably with the possible loss of $250. 

Without specific data this is always going to be a bit of a guessing game and with traders contributing their hard-earned dollars to this campaign we want to get it right. But the argument detailed above seems to make sense. What do you think?



COMMENTS:
01/12/2014 09:57:44 Giveaway Voucher "I Think it would be a better idea, if we announce two winners every market day with a prize money of $250 each. May be one at 11:00 am and the other one at 1:00 pm. In this case there would be more prize winners and more sales activities in favour of all the stall holders."

01/12/2014 13:57:38 Trader Give Away "As ALL TRADERS, SHOPS, DELI, MEAT & FISH are required to take the QVM gift vouchers are we not giving them our form of cash.........They are able to spend these vouchers at any location within the QVM. The other notion you need to note, is that this giveaway is FREE to enter, they are not required to purchase a ticket, not even required to make a purchase within the market. All they need to do is collect a ticket and be at the market at 12pm......its not like they even need to wait around...... the weekday office workers can walk over at 11:55 grab a ticket, wait for the draw, if they win collect $500 (at the moment $250 cash) and walk away.....nothing making them spend the vouchers even, as they have $250 cash for going on a lunch break. A trader comment says lets give away 2 x $250 prizes, your article says the average spend is $100, so why not give away 5 x $100 prizes throughout the day......use the same raffle tickets, and make the draw every 30 mins from 10:30 till 1:00. that keeps people in the market, gives them multiple chances to win...... As the office would now know how much the traders are putting towards the draw (they would have of put the charges to those who did not say ""NO"" today, so if we have more than 250 traders supplying $1 each, lets say we have 500 traders all putting in $1, then the office is matching it, so that $1000 per day, we could offer that 5 x $200 vouchers, and if not claimed before the next draw it should jackpot, so it creates more interest in each draw throughout the day." Lance

01/12/2014 22:10:00 The Ticket Draw "I agree , two draws x $ 250 , 2 times, or even 4 draws x $125 - all spending vouches...would benefit market traders ." Andy

03/12/2014 11:41:47 Give away. "Lances comments are valid....I had a customer who told me that her and her friends had just come to the qvm to receive the free raffle tickets. They were really happy that 1) they cost nothing and 2) that the did not have to buy anything, and they might be lucky enough to go home with $250!........ .they did not care about the vouchers only the cash. What are your comments?"
Fortunately the first 4 winners of our Cash Giveaway were interstate or international customers who, as far as we know, knew nothing about our promotion before coming to the market to shop. I met each of them and they were genuinely grateful to traders for the added bonus. There will always be cynical opportunists like your customer with this type of promotion. Let's hope they remain the minority. This is a trader inspired promotion aimed at giving something back to customers and creating a buzz around the market. - Ed.

04/12/2014 00:04:22 mmw and the draw "In relation to mmw I feel all the traders, especially those in J-L, should have their rent waived for the entirety of mmw. I agree with several traders here, there should be several draws, but it should all be in market vouchers, so they at least spend it here."