I had an interesting conversation the other day with Johnny Lucas, the Editor-in-Chief of Driven Magazine. (Driven is a life-style publication targeted to affluent urban men. It is distributed to some Globe & Mail subscribers and in Air Canada airport lounges.)

They have chosen to run a contest on their website giving away ten pairs of Maui Jim sunglasses valued at $200 per pair. Entrants must answer a survey to gain an entry into the contest. Even though they would love to limit the entrants to their magazines target market, they follow Canadian promotional law and open the contest to all.

This is the marketer’s dilemma. How does a company ensure they reach their target market, while at the same time complying with proper marketing practices and regulations?

There are four solutions to this dilemma:

1. Hire a promotional marketing company. They have the expertise to run promotions properly and legally. This solution may not be for all as some smaller companies may not have the funds within their marketing budget to hire such a firm.
2. Run the promotion, analyse the information collected, then tailor the next promotion based on the data collected from the first. This solution involves a lot trial-and-error, plus time which the marketer may not have.
3. Run simple promotions promoting your sponsors and not worrying about if your target market had been reached. That may sound counterproductive, but they don’t know who their next customers may be. I can’t afford an expensive car today, but I might be able to tomorrow, so then I would be in their target demographic. Plus, they don’t know who I know. Word-of-mouth and social marketing have been steadily growing and I just may influence their next customer.
4. Do not run any promotions. (I don’t like this solution at all!)

I am interested to see which choice for future promotions Driven Magazine makes after their current contest is over.