The Promotional Idea Showcase - Summer 2001 - Updated Quarterly

Sales Incentive Cruise Features Specialties

It’s generally acknowledged by employee relations experts that a highly effective way to hang on to your best people is for management to show its appreciation with benefits, awards and incentives. Obviously, the same philosophy applies even more to a firm’s customers; if they don’t hang around, a business has no market to sell to.
Meritor, a manufacturer of heavy truck parts, wanted to get to know its vendors better by thanking them for their business. It did this with one vendor in a trade show setting, but in an unusual location. 

Navistar (now International), a trucking concern and major Meritor buyer, offered a special reward to its 1,000 top salespeople – a three-day cruise to the Bahamas, complete with a pirate theme. Meritor saw an excellent opportunity for a co-op promotion with Navistar to support those who had qualified for the trip. 

To add just a touch of business to the cruise, 12 companies (light truck parts and services) set up booths on the ship as a fun way for Navistar salespeople to learn about what each offered. Each passenger was asked to fill out a questionnaire with one trivia question about each exhibitor. In each booth, a large treasure chest containing a gift valued at $250 was displayed. Once a guest answered the question, he or she was given a key to attempt to open the chest. If it fit, that person won the grand prize. The whole idea was to encourage everyone to get to know each of the suppliers, explains Tim Bauer, Meritor sales manager.

Of course, Meritor itself had a booth, too. To further embellish the theme, it distributed imprinted miniature treasure chests filled with 25 chocolate coins covered in gold foil. It hoped that as each visitor picked up some literature and their gift, they would also talk with its reps. In addition, Bauer notes, the gifts left a lasting impression. 

A sticker placed on the side of each mini treasure chest displayed Meritor’s logo. Navistar’s logo appeared on one side of the foil wrapper, the Meritor name/logo on the other. The chocolate itself was also embossed with both logos. “We wanted to do something that was unique and fit into the theme of the trip; something that attracted participants,” Bauer explains. “And we achieved this. The dealers remembered us.”

Mary Ellen Clausen, the counselor who created the program, says she immediately thought of the products when approached by Meritor: “Because the cruise [used] a pirate theme, the treasure chest was the first thing that came to mind.”

While there weren’t any hard results reported, Bauer says a lot of interest was created. “We had the ability to talk to every person there and pitch what we wanted to,” he notes. “There was so much interest in what we were giving out that people kept coming up and spending time with us.”

This online version of IMPRINT MAGAZINE is updated regularly along with the printed version.