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2b Read and answer the questions.
1 Why do companies develop new promotion techniques?
2 How did the customer make money with this promotion?
3 How did Shell make sure the promotion wouldn't cost them too much money?
4 What evidence is there that Make Money was a successful promotion?
New promotion techniques
Techniques which are used to win customers include coupons, samples, money back,
competitions, etc. Many of these techniques are over a hundred years old. New promo
tion techniques are not often developed and, even when they are, there is always a
risk that they will not please customers. So why do companies still try to develop new
promotion techniques? The answer is because companies which do develop a suc
cessful new promotion can win many customers because they are the first to use the
technique
The oil company Shell invented a new "matching-half promotion called 'Make Money
Each time people bought a Shell product they were given half of a bank note. If they got
the other half of the note they could get the money for the two halves. So for example,
if they got two halves of a 500 soum note, they could get 500 soum in cash in the Shell
shop. The competition was very successful because it was simple, it was easy to win
and people liked getting cash immediately. Shell liked it because it could control the
amount of money it had to pay. It printed a limited number of matching halves. 'Make
Money' was a very successful promotion and paid for itself many times over. It helped
Shell to increase its sales by 50% over a ten week period. When the promotion was
over, sales remained high for several months. This was because some motorists who
had changed to buy Shell products during the promotion continued to buy them after
the promotion ended.​