Why do businesses run competitions?

There are many reasons that competitions exist, but the most across-the-board answer is for commercial reasons. This isn't always the case, as sometimes Government Depts. and charities will run a competition to promote awareness, however when it comes to winning competitions in most cases there is a financial reason behind it.

Is this a bad thing? Not at all. Running a competition is all promotion and advertising, and when you think about it there's little benefit to you on most other forms of advertising except information.

As a summary, promoters will run competitions for two reasons:

- To get you to buy or try something; a little way to sweeten the deal.
- To get your information; generally to be able to email, mail or phone you at some later stage.

With this out of the way, there are some secondary reasons for offering a competition as a form of marketing, and part of that is cost. Competitions can cost a lot less than other forms of advertising, especially television.

Also, if you take a walk around a supermarket, notice how a competition entry form stands out against all other specials "shelf talkers". Competitions are a great means of exposing a brand.

Whatever the reason, competitions have stood the test of time over years to remain popular. And, with competitions being easier to run and of more communication value, expect this trend to continue.

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©Craig Bradley Market Engineering Pty Ltd. 2009. All articles are original content and opinions of the author Craig Seitam. Copying of all or part of any content without the expressed permission of the author is prohibited.