How Does Colgate's Free Item with Purchase Promotion Work In-Store?

Chances are you’ve already availed yourself free item with purchase, or your brand already offered this kind of promotion to your customers. Free item/gift with purchase is a sales tactic used by retailers to entice and convert buyers. Who doesn’t want to receive a free item? Of course, everyone loves to, especially if the gift being offered would be useful for them.

With that said, Colgate took advantage of this marketing idea. The brand indeed never fails to put a smile on the face of its customers. With its current gift with purchase promotion, the brand is giving away a free storage box for every purchase of its Anticavity Twin Pack.

We came across this promotion in one of the stores here in Hing Kong, and we can’t help but avail ourselves of the promo.

Colgate’s Free Item with Purchase

As part of personal hygiene, toothpaste is surely a part of everyone’s daily life. Thus, there’s no doubt different brands are competing on how to sell their product.

After more than a century of selling its toothpaste products, Colgate still finds ways to keep its customers. Its current free item with purchase is the best example.

See what the promotion is all about and what makes this work in Hong Kong stores?

1. Practical Free Gift Idea

A storage box is undeniably a must-have at home and even in offices. They serve as an extra container of old and important things. It makes things easy to find and in order.

The item measures 30 x 20 x 22 cm, enough to accommodate things or documents.

Thus, offering such a useful item clicks with many, especially among mothers.

2. Adorable Design

Hello Kitty, is a character that originated in Hong Kong. Thus, it comes without saying it’s popular in the place. Even other countries are hooked on this cartoon character.

With that said, using Hello Kitty design certainly appeals to HK citizens.

Not just for kids, people who grow up seeing this character would also be captivated by this gift with purchase offer.

3. Creative Product Packaging

Not just the free gift, Colgate’s product packaging is also designed with Hello Kitty character. This makes this promotion stand out even more inside the retail market we’ve visited.

The creative product packaging is undoubtedly too attention-grabbing not to notice. Moreover, it is printed with the promotion details, providing information to buyers.

Room for Improvement

Colgate’s free item with purchase in-store promotion is certainly a good one. However, for us, this promotion has still some flaws not need to be addressed to make it even more effective.

This GWP promotion is obviously a great one, especially for a brand in the industry for a long time.

There’s only one thing that we found off about this in-store marketing: it does not have a designated store shelf display to accommodate the products.

Though it is organised in a display, we noticed that it is arranged together with other products.

We believe that this promotion will stand out even better if the products are displayed on their designated shelf or creative POS display.

In that way, shoppers can easily locate these products in-store.

Here’s an excellent example of a product display we’ve featured before. We found this product display shelf by Pukka in a supermarket in Singapore. See how neat the display is. This POS display unit becomes more captivating because of the interactive spinning wheel that is designed on top of it.

See More of Colgate’s promotions below:

Colgate launched this gift with purchase in a local supermarket in Singapore. For every purchase of 3 150g tubes of Colgate’s toothpaste, customers are entitled to a 2-in-1 bowl pack.

How Colgate Rises Above Competitors: Custom Printed Bowls

With the goal of educating the people about the importance of keeping one’s teeth and gums healthy, Colgate offered these on-pack gifts for kids! Designed with Despicable Me, it become a hit among kids and kids at heart.

On-Pack Toys to Promote Brand Message- A Colgate Case Study

Customers can receive this fantastic Gift with Purchase when they buy Colgate’s maximum cavity protection toothpaste. We particularly like their brand packaging design which uses bright pink colours.

Promotional Branded Ceramic Mug- Colgate Case Study

Shoppers can get exclusive LINE merch when they purchase a box of their product. Each box contains two Colgate toothpaste and LINE bowl with a plastic lid. Check out this promotion below.

How Colgate Use On Pack Premium for Customer Retention

Why Should You Consider Free Item with Purchase?

Giving your customers a free item with purchase is a great deal that benefits you and your customer. Here are what you can gain from running this kind of promotion.

Adds Value to Your Brand

Increase Conversion Rates

Encourage Repeat Purchases

Upsell Your Customers

Build Customer Loyalty

Gain New Customers

How to Run a Successful Free Item with Purchase Campaign?

Now you know why running a free gift with purchase promotion is a good idea, here are the things you need to consider to implement it.

Set Your Objectives

Like any other marketing campaign, you should define the objectives and targets for your gift with purchase campaign. Do you want to attract more visitors? Test new product or move stock that hasn’t been selling well?

Once you’ve set your goals, you can now choose which product to give.

Choose Your Gift.

When deciding on your gift, remember that the gift should complement the purchased product somehow. If not, consider something that will be useful to your recipient.

Set the qualifying amount.

One of the ways to define the spending target is to look at the transaction amount and number of items in an average order at your stores. Your gift promotion should encourage customers to buy more than they usually do. You can set the qualifying purchase higher than the average order value.

Stock your gift inventory.

Another important consideration when planning your promotion is ensuring that you have an adequate amount of inventory for both the gift and the products they need to purchase to get the gift. Running out of free items too early during the promotion can lead to frustrated customers.

Market your free item with purchase.

You need to promote your free items to drive more traffic and conversion to your store. You can implement email marketing and social media campaigns to highlight the values of the gifts and build the hype around your offer. You may also utilise interactive POS ideas in-store to call shoppers’ attention.

Putting it All Together,

Customers are more satisfied with brands that make a genuine effort to connect with them. Offering gifts with purchase ideas is an excellent tactic to acquire new customers and strengthen your relationship with existing ones. The customers gain more value from their investment, while retailers gain more profits and a better brand image.

If you consider this promotion for your next marketing campaign and need a company to help you produce your gift with purchase merchandise, feel free to connect with us. We, at ODM, together with our experienced product designers from Mindsparkz, will help you create the design and product you need.

With almost two decades in the sourcing and manufacturing industry, we can guarantee that we offer nothing but the best quality of products and services.