Chapter 18/ Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

Vans does much of it's sales promotions through concerts, contests and events. The company knows the target market likes getting free merchandise and spreading enthusiasm for the Vans brand through word of mouth.

The Vans Warped Tour is a concert tour that showcases popular punk rock and pop artists throughout the summertime. Vans uses the popularity of the artists to attract youth and especially the target market of kids going back to school in the fall. Vans gives away free shoes, socks and merchandise to kids at the tour so they can recognize the brand when shopping for back to school clothing. The company realizes that they can make a huge amount of money in the back to school season. The brand wants to establish strong brand recognition in it's customers.

The VANS X ROCKSTAR TRIPLE CROWN OF SURFING SWEEPSKATES is used to create interest in youth consumers who may not know much about or be interested in Vans. The sweepstakes is also joined with Rockstar Energy Drink. Rockstar Energy Drink can build its brand recognition from joining with Vans on it's sweepstakes. The winner of the sweepstakes gets a $500 Vans gift card and a year supply of Rockstar Energy Drinks. Even though one will win, many will enter the contest and may develop growing interest for Vans and Rockstar Energy Drink.

The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing is one of the top competitions for professional surfers. Set in the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, the competition is for fans who are interested in seeing surfing and want to see the top athletes go for the grand prize of $820,000. It runs from November 12 through December 20. The event is designed to draw people to the Vans and Rockstar energy brands. The competition will showcase surfers with Vans flip flops, shirts, sneakers and many other products so the target market will be interested in buying Vans.

Vans has trade shows where the company does not stress personal selling but still does personally sell. In these trade shows, instead of concentrating on making orders, the company wants to communicate their direction as a whole through retailers, manufacturers and in their industry.